| Within Metapontum Agrobios there are multiple projects attempting developing new tomato plant lines (Lycopersicon esculentum) with specific characteristics of agronomical and nutritional interest. With this goal in mind TILLING (Target Induced Local Lesions In Genomes) technology is being employed.
TILLING is a system of “reverse genetics” that combines traditional mutagenesis with sophisticated molecular biological techniques to identify point mutations and alleles that are responsible for phenotypes of interest. Whereas the mutagenesis (e.g. chemical mutagenesis with EMS) is simple, the identification of interesting mutations depends on the knowledge of the nucleotide sequence of the gene under examination. TILLING has been successfully applied to many organisms both plants (Arabidopsis thaliana, tomato, lettuce, wheat, maize, Lotus japonicus) and animals (zebrafish, drosophila) independent of their genome size.
TILLING consists of three principal traits: first it does not require genetic transformation, next it can be automated in high throughput systems, and lastly it is capable of identifying “missense” mutations in addition to “nonsense” (knockout).
At Metapontum Agrobios, two mutagenized populations of industrially important tomato plants (cultivar Red Setter) were produced by treatment of seeds with two different concentrations of EMS (ethylmethylsolfonic acid, 0.7% and 1%). The two populations (roughly 7000 M2 lines) are being used to identify and analyse, by means of TILLING technology, new tomato lines of interest for national (ITALYCO, MIUR) and international research projects (European project EU-SOL, FP6).
LycoTILL: Tomato Mutant Database
For more information please contact: Dr. Filomena
Carriero |
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