Chapter 4. Gene Discovery

Summary

Genes need to be identified within the genome. This can be through the characterization of cDNAs and the annotation of the genome using gene finding programs. Alternatively, functional assays involving activation tagging, insertional mutagenesis with transposons or T-DNA, and chemical mutagenesis. RNAi that induces epigenetic suppression of homologous genes (gene silencing) is particularly useful for identifying gene families with redundant/overlapping functions.