In Germany, botanists with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have developed a technique to more precisely and reliably install or modify genetic information in the plant genome. The new method is based on the natural repair mechanism of plants.
“Using an appropriate enzyme, i.e. molecular scissors, we first make a cut at the right point in the genome and then supply the necessary patch to repair this cut,” says Friedrich Fauser from KIT. This trick is referred to as “in planta gene targeting,” or IPGT, which can be applied to every plant. Researchers at KIT worked with SunGene GmbH, a subsidiary of BASF Plant Science.