TILLING without a plough: a new method with applications for reverse genetics

TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes) is a powerful reverse genetic technique that employs a mismatch-specific endonuclease to detect induced or natural DNA polymorphisms. Its advantages over other reverse genetic techniques include its applicability to virtually any organism, its facility for high-throughput and its independence of genome size, reproductive system or generation time. TILLING is currently being used for the detection of both induced and natural variation in several plant species.