Arabidopsis 2010: The Endgame for Reverse Genetics: Isolation and Distribution of a Knockout Mutant for Every Gene in Arabidopsis.

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Arabidopsis 2010: The Endgame for Reverse Genetics. The Arabidopsis 2010 Project is focused on determining the function of each of the 26,000 genes found in the genome of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. One of the most definitive methods for determining gene function is to create an organism in which that gene is missing and then ask the question: how does that simple genetic defect change how the organism develops and functions? Such mutant organisms are commonly called 'knockouts' and this project is focused on developing and using new technologies to provide knockout plants to the research community. Funds from this project will continue to support the University of Wisconsin Knockout Plant Facility, established under a previous award, as well as support research on using new high throughput methods for more easily identifying large numbers of knockout plants. The research community and public can obtain information on the procedures used to screen for mutants and to obtain seeds from this project via the website already established and maintained at the University of Wisconsin Biotechnology Center Knockout Plant Facility (http://www.biotech.wisc.edu/Arabidopsis/). One new technology supported under this project is the use of a recently developed method for creating 'DNA chips' (i.e., small pieces of glass on which a very large number of different DNA sequences are synthesized and displayed) to develop new methods of finding and cataloging knockout organisms. Results from this research will be published in the appropriate scientific journals and the methodology for high-throughput screens to find new knockout plants will be described on the above website. More broadly, results from this project may provide new methods for determining the function of genes in any sequenced genome, information which is critical for further advances in agriculture and medicine.