Unveiling the Genetic Secrets of Pea

Scientists from the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) have developed a high-throughput forward and reverse genetic tool for the study of pea, a tool that could have major benefits for crop breeders around the world.

Through TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions In Genomes), the scientists have set-up a platform containing DNA samples from almost five thousand plants. TILLING is an alternative to the traditional Agrobacterium-mediated transformation technique and uses mutagenesis coupled with a gene-specific detection of single-nucleotide changes. The scientists then constructed a database called UTILLdb, where description of mutant plants (in specific developmental stages), their characteristics (phenotypes) and mutant gene sequence information are stored. Researchers using pea as a model plant for their study can access the database and search for specific genes or TILLING alleles.

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