PLANTREC: Homologous recombination in plants

• Research unit: EU RFP
• Project number: 01.0184

Key words (English)

Hyper-recombinogenic mutants; expression profiling; gene targeting;
Biotechnology; Life Sciences; Medicine; Health; Scientific Research

Alternative project number (English)

EU project number: QLG2-CT-2001-01397

Research programs (English)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.1.8 Generic R&D activities

Short description (English)

See abstract

Partners and International Organizations (English)

Coordinator:

Abstract (English)

Major advances have been made in knowledge of plant genomes and the recombination processes regulating their structure and integrity.
However, exploitation of this is limited by absence of methodology for the targeted, in-situ modification of plant genes and chromosomes. In plants the somatic homologous recombination machinery is overwhelmed by another recombination process (NHEJ), which causes incoming DNA to insert at a random position in the genome, often accompanied by un wanted rearrangements.
This is an important reason for questioning the safety of transgenic crops. We directly address these issues and 5 academic and 2 industrial research groups together aim to develop novel tools to obtain gene targeting in plants, based on a detailed understanding of recombination in plants.
The groups will contribute considerable novel expertise and biological material to the project: plant hype recombination mutants, cloned genes and proven assays.

References in databases (English)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 01.0184