Co-chairman's remarks: reverse genetics: directed modification of DNA for functional analysis

The classic paradigm for identifying the genetic basis of a particular organism's properties proceeds from the phenotype to the gene, and thence to the molecular structures of the corresponding DNA, RNA and protein. 'Positional cloning' of disease genes and the molecular characterization of the responsible mutations (inappropriately referred to as reverse genetics, initially) exemplifies this approach. Now, the ability to clone, modify and test the biological activities of DNA segments provides a new approach, referred to as 'reverse genetics'. This paradigm begins with a segment of DNA whose molecular structure is known, and proceeds to explore the gene's contribution to the organism's phenotype; thus, the experimental path is from the gene as a nucleotide sequence to the corresponding phenotypic characteristic. Such a strategy follows from the ability to modify these sequences in highly directed and nearly unlimited ways, and to assess the phenotypic relevance of such alterations either in vitro, in cultured cells, or even in whole organisms. This approach permits the full panoply of molecular techniques to be used for creating uniquely altered structures and obviates the reliance on chance events as the source of mutations. As a consequence, the range of questions that can be studied is greatly expanded, and the information that is obtained is all the richer.