A redesigned prime editor that improves gene editing efficiency in plants

Engineered plant prime editors (ePPE) improved editing efficiency by an average of 5.8-fold compared to original prime editors.

• Modifications to the Moloney-murine leukemia virus reverse transcriptase and the addition of a viral nucleocapsid protein enhanced editing efficiency by approximately 1.8-3.4-fold when applied independently.
• Combining these modifications in ePPE resulted in significant improvements in base substitutions, deletions, and insertions across various locations in plant cells.
• An editing frequency of 11.3% was achieved in rice plants using ePPE, compared to 2.1% with the original prime editing technology.
• No significant increase in unwanted byproducts or off-target effects was detected with the use of ePPE.
• The ePPE was further optimized by pairing it with engineered dual-prime editing guide RNAs to potentially increase efficiency.

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