Gene silencing tool for plant breeding
March 19, 2008 | Source: KurzweilAI
Max Planck Institute and International Rice Research Institute researchers have built an an artificial microRNA (amiRNA) tool to inactivate single genes in rice, allowing a beneficial trait caused by an inactive gene in one strain of rice to be quickly transfered to other strains without years of breeding.
Beneficial traits can arise from the inactivation of a single gene, just as they can from a change in a single gene. The new tool will allow a precise and accurate transfer of an inactivated gene between different varieties of rice, and accelerate the initial identification of important genes and their functions.
The technique should work in other crops, since microRNAs have been found in all studied plant species. Design software, amiRNA protocols, and the amiRNA vector are available free for researchers.
