Engineering of the Translesion DNA Synthesis Pathway Enables Controllable C-to-G and C-to-A Base Editing in Corynebacterium glutamicum

Expanding the base conversion type is expected to largely broaden the application of base editing, whereas it requires decipherment of the machinery controlling the editing outcome. Here, we discovered that the DNA polymerase V-mediated translesion DNA synthesis (TLS) pathway controlled the C-to-A editing by a glycosylase base editor (GBE) in Escherichia coli. However, C-to-G conversion was surprisingly found to be the main product of the GBE in Corynebacterium glutamicum and subsequent gene inactivation identified the decisive TLS enzymes. Introduction of the E. coli TLS pathway into a TLS-deficient C. glutamicum mutant completely changed the GBE outcome from C-to-G to C-to-A. Combining the canonical C-to-T editor, a pioneering C-to-N base editing toolbox was established in C. glutamicum. The expanded base conversion capability produces greater genetic diversity and promotes the application of base editing in gene inactivation and protein evolution. This study demonstrates the possibility of engineering TLS systems to develop advanced genome editing tools.