The present invention relates to Transcription Activator-Like
Effector (TALE) derived proteins that allow to efficiently target and / or process
double stranded nucleic acid sequences. The proteins of the invention are typically chimeric
protein monomers composed of a core
scaffold comprising Repeat Variable
Dipeptide regions (RVDs) having binding specificity to
a DNA target sequence, to which is fused a catalytic domain to its N-terminal. This later catalytic domain, which can be a
monomer of a
nuclease, is placed at this position to possibly interact with another catalytic domain fused to another TAL
monomer, such that, when said monomers are binding to their respective target
DNA sequences, both catalytic domains form a catalytic entity likely to process
DNA in the proximity of these target sequences. This new TAL architecture makes it possible to target only one
DNA strand, which is not the case, for instance, with classical TALEN architectures. The present invention also relates to vectors encoding such proteins and compositions or kits in which Transcription Activator-Like
Effector (TALE) proteins of the present invention are used.