Research Director

Ayako Nishizawa-Yokoi

National Agriculture and Food Research Organization
Institute of Agrobiological Sciences
Principal Researcher
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Outline

Gene targeting (GT) is a useful approach that allows the introduction of desired modifications into a target gene. However, with the exception of rice, reproducible GT methods have not been established in crops because of the low efficiency of homologous recombination in higher plants. In this study, I establish a highly efficient GT system in rice cells using expression of effectors enhancing the frequency of homologous recombination. Towards the practical use of mutated crops produced by GT, I further develop a shuttle vector which can put effector genes in and out of without trace. The goal of this study is to establish a universal GT system that can be applied to a wide variety of crops.