Plant minichromosomes

James A. Birchler, Nathaniel D. Graham, Nathan C. Swyers, Jon P. Cody, Morgan E. McCaw

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Plant minichromosomes have the potential for stacking multiple traits on a separate entity from the remainder of the genome. Transgenes carried on an independent chromosome would facilitate conferring many new properties to plants and using minichromosomes as genetic tools. The favored method for producing plant minichromosomes is telomere-mediated chromosomal truncation because the epigenetic nature of centromere function prevents using centromere sequences to confer the ability to organize a kinetochore when reintroduced into plant cells. Because haploid induction procedures are not always complete in eliminating one parental genome, chromosomes from the inducer lines are often present in plants that are otherwise haploid. This fact suggests that minichromosomes could be combined with doubled haploid breeding to transfer stacked traits more easily to multiple lines and to use minichromosomes for massive scale genome editing.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)135-142
Number of pages8
JournalCurrent opinion in biotechnology
Volume37
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 1 2016
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

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