RNA viruses are capable of rapid spread and severe or potentially lethal disease in both animals and humans. The development of reverse genetics systems for manipulation and study of RNA virus genomes has provided platforms for designing and optimizing viral mutants for vaccine development. Here, we review the impact of RNA virus reverse genetics systems on past and current efforts to design ef...

The primary goal of reverse genetics, the identification of null mutations in targeted genes, is achieved through screening large populations of randomly mutagenized plants. T-DNA and transposon-based mutagenesis has been widely employed but is limited to species in which transformation and tissue culture are efficient. In other species, TILLING (for Targeting Induced Local Lesions IN Genomes),...

The notoriously low efficiency of Paramyxoviridae reverse genetics systems has posed a limiting barrier to the study of viruses in this family. Previous approaches to reverse genetics have utilized a wide variety of techniques to overcome the technical hurdles. Although robustness (i.e., the number of attempts that result in successful rescue) has been improved in some systems with the use of s...

Arenaviruses are important human pathogens with no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-licensed vaccines available and current antiviral therapy being limited to an off-label use of the nucleoside analogue ribavirin of limited prophylactic efficacy. The development of reverse genetics systems represented a major breakthrough in arenavirus research. However, rescue of recombinant arenaviruses usi...

The ability to identify, study, create and utilize genetic variation are arguably fundamental aspects in the development of human beings. Traditional, or forward , genetics has its roots in man’s fi rst attempts at the domestication of plants and animals. Novel and preferred traits such as the lack of seed shattering were selected from large populations and maintained for future propagation, le...

Insertional mutant databases containing Flanking Sequence Tags (FSTs) are becoming key resources for plant functional genomics. We have developed OryGenesDB (http://orygenesdb.cirad.fr/), a database dedicated to rice reverse genetics. Insertion mutants of rice genes are catalogued by Flanking Sequence Tag (FST) information that can be readily accessed by this database. Our database presently co...

Forward genetics is the identification and characterization of gene that responsible for mutant phenotype. It starts with measurement or observation a phenotype followed by mapping causative loci genes. In addition, forward genetic approaches are, unbiased in terms since primary level measurement. Reverse genetics, on other hand, analyzes an organism following disruption known gene. To generate...