title: Towards targeted mutagenesis and gene replacement in plants.
abstract: Advances in the development of biotechnological tools for plant gene disruption and repair have lagged behind the rapid progress made in whole-genome sequencing of many model and crop plant species. Plant DNA-repair machinery predominantly uses non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ), making the homologous recombination (HR)-based methods, which have proved fruitful for gene targeting in non-plant systems, unsuitable for use in plant systems. Two recent reports describe successful targeted mutagenesis and gene targeting in Arabidopsis by either harnessing the plant NHEJ machinery using site-specific induction of double-strand breaks (DSBs), or by activation of a HR pathway through overexpression of a yeast DNA recombination gene in transgenic plants. These reports provide a foundation from which new technologies for site-specific genome alterations in plant species can be developed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. ttzfira@umich.edu
authors.forename: Tzvi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tzfira
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: White
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics; D004247:DNA; D003851:Deoxyribonucleases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D016296:Mutagenesis; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D016335:Zinc Fingers
chemical_list: D004247:DNA; D003851:Deoxyribonucleases