Whole-Genome Analysis of Herbicide-Tolerant Mutant Rice Generated by Agrobacterium-Mediated Gene Targeting

Abstract

Gene targeting (GT) is a technique used to modify endogen-ous genes in target genomes precisely via homologous re-combination (HR). Although GT plants are produced using genetic transformation techniques, if the difference between the endogenous and the modified gene is limited to point mutations, GT crops can be considered equivalent to non-genetically modified mutant crops generated by conven-tional mutagenesis techniques. However, it is difficult to guarantee the non-incorporation of DNA fragments from Agrobacterium in GT plants created by Agrobacterium-mediated GT despite screening with conventional Southern blot and/or PCR techniques. Here, we report a comprehensive analysis of herbicide-tolerant rice plants gen-erated by inducing point mutations in the rice ALS gene via Agrobacterium-mediated GT. We performed genome com