锌指核酸酶技术最新进展及其在植物基因工程中的应用

The Latest Progress in Zinc Finger Nucleases and Their Applications in Plant Science

锌指核酸酶(zinc finger nucleases,ZFNs)是近年来发展起来的一项定点改变基因组序列的新技术.它能够特异切开基因组中的特定序列,产生双链断裂DNA,诱导细胞启动DNA损伤修复过程,在修复过程中实现对靶基因的敲除或改变.这一技术可以通过删除某一基因或一个基因的一部分、导入点突变等,对该基因的功能进行研究,也可以定向改变基因组序列,使生物体获得新的功能.这项技术在基因功能的研究和新药的研发、新品种选育等方面有着十分广阔的应用前景,是后基因组时代基因功能研究的重要手段.介绍了ZFNs工作原理,重点阐述了该技术近几年的最新进展及其在植物学领域的应用,同时也对ZFNs存在的问题进行了深入分析.

Zinc finger nucleases （ZFNs） is a recently developed technology for targeted genome modifi cation. The enzyme can bind specially to, and hence cleave the target sequences, resulting in double-strand breaks （DSBs）. Mutations were introduced into the genome during DSBs reparation. ZFNs were widely used to reveal functions of a gene by knock-out or modification of the gene,or to gain new functions of bio- logical organisms. ZFNs are powerful tools in post-genomic era,and had a wide use in gene function study, new drug research and development, and breeding of new varieties. Besides a brief introduction of ZFNs, we mainly focus on the latest progress, and the applications in plant science. At the same time, we also analyzed some problems that need to be solved in the future.