TILLING moves beyond functional genomics into crop improvement

• Published in: Transgenic research Vol. 14; no. 2; pp. 109 - 115
• Main Authors: Slade, A.J, Knauf, V.C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.04.2005; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agriculture; agronomic traits; Arabidopsis - genetics; Arabidopsis thaliana; Biological and medical sciences; Biotechnology; Breeding; Crops; DNA, Plant - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes; Genetic engineering; genetic improvement; Genetic technics; genetic techniques and protocols; Genetic Variation; Genetics; genomics; Methods. Procedures. Technologies; molecular genetics; mutants; mutation; plant breeding; Plants, Genetically Modified - genetics; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; reverse genetics; Sequence Analysis, DNA; single nucleotide polymorphism; Targeting Induced Local Lesions In Genomes; TILLING; Transgenic animals and transgenic plants; Triticum - genetics; TILLING; crop improvement; SNP discovery; Genomics; Optimization
• ISSN: 0962-8819; 1573-9368
• DOI: 10.1007/s11248-005-2770-x

Transgenic methods have been successfully applied to trait improvement in a number of crops. However, reverse genetics studies by transgenic means are not practical in many commercially important crops, hampering investigations into gene function and the development of novel and improved cultivars. A nontransgenic method for reverse genetics called Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes (TILLING) has been developed as a method for inducing and identifying novel genetic variation, and has been demonstrated in the model plant, Arabidopsis thaliana. Recently, TILLING has been extended to the improvement of crop plants and shows great promise as a general method for both functional genomics and modulation of key traits in diverse crops.