Gene targeting in plants: fingers on the move

Zinc-finger endonucleases (ZFNs) make targeted double-stranded breaks in genomic DNA and, thus, stimulate recombination and repair processes at specific sites. ZFNs can now be harnessed to stimulate homologous recombination and gene targeting in plants, which represents a major step towards modifying the plant genome more precisely. ZFN-mediated gene targeting is likely to become a powerful tool for genome research and genetic engineering.