Thursday 10 October 2013
TILLING
TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes) is a process for producing a large number of recessive mutations by single-base substitution. This is in contrast to insertational mutagenesis or gene silencing methods. The process can produce several single base substitutions within one gene, the effects of which can be analysed experimentally.
In TILLING, mismatched strands of DNA with different alleles form bubbles called heteroduplexes, which are amplified by PCR. The mismatched DNA is cleaved by single stranded nucleases, and the products are separated by size. If there is a mutation, graphical analysis will show multiple peaks, corresponding to the main product and the snips from the heteroduplexes.
Mutants identified in TILLING may be incorporated into crop breeding programmes without using traditional GM technology.
Sorghum bicolor Background
Sorghum is a grain that is commonly grown in dry environments like Queensland, parts of the USA and Africa, due to its higher tolerance of arid conditions compared to other cereals. Sorghum bicolor is the cultivated strain, and is the fifth most important cereal in the world. In Australia, sorghum is mainly used to feed livestock, although in Africa it is an important source of food.
With the drive to develop more renewable energies for the future, many have looked to grains as potential biofuels. However, given the already increasing prices of staple crops, there is great resistance to the use of wheat in renewable energies. On the other hand, sorghum does not represent such an important food source for Western countries, so there is less concern over its use as a replacement for fossil fuels. Sorghum has a much higher fibre to starch ratio than grains like wheat, making it less digestible and causing the grains to have a lower nutritional value.
The overall objective of our research is to improve sorghum in a way that can meet concerns over food security and renewable energy. Genetic manipulation has shown the potential to improve Sorghum bicolor digestibility and yield.
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