Department of Cell & Systems Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks St, Toronto, ON, Canada.
New Phytol. 2010 Jan;185(1):15-26. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.03045.x. Epub 2009 Oct 13.
The success of the genomics revolution to construct a genetic architecture of a variety of model organisms has placed functional biologists under pressure to show what each individual gene does in vivo. Traditionally, this task has fallen on geneticists who systematically perturb gene function and study the consequences. With the advent of large, easily accessible, small-molecule libraries and new methods of chemical synthesis, biologists now have new ways to probe gene function. Often called chemical genetics, this approach involves the screening of compounds that perturb a process of interest. In this scenario, each perturbing chemical is analogous to a specific mutation. Here, we summarize, with specific examples, how chemical genetics is being used in combination with traditional genetics to address problems in plant biology. Because chemical genetics is rooted in genetic analysis, we focus on how chemicals used in combination with genetics can be very powerful in dissecting a process of interest.
基因组学革命的成功构建了各种模式生物的遗传结构，这使得功能生物学家面临着展示每个基因在体内的作用的压力。传统上，这项任务落在了系统扰乱基因功能并研究后果的遗传学家身上。随着大型、易于获取的小分子文库和新的化学合成方法的出现，生物学家现在有了新的方法来探测基因功能。这种方法通常被称为化学遗传学，它涉及到筛选扰乱感兴趣过程的化合物。在这种情况下，每种扰乱化学物质都类似于特定的突变。在这里，我们将通过具体的例子总结化学遗传学如何与传统遗传学结合使用来解决植物生物学中的问题。因为化学遗传学是建立在遗传分析的基础上的，所以我们专注于如何将与遗传学结合使用的化学物质用于感兴趣的过程的分析。
