Back to the future: Mutant hunts are still the way to go

Abstract

Innumerable breakthroughs in many fundamental areas of biology have come from unbiased screens and selections for mutations, either across the genome or within a gene. However, long-standing hurdles to key elements of mutant hunts (mutagenesis, phenotypic characterization, and linkage of phenotype to genotype) have limited the organisms in which mutant hunts could be used. These hurdles are now being eliminated by an explosion of new technologies. We believe that a renewed emphasis on unbiased mutant hunts, in both existing model systems and in those where genetics is just now becoming feasible, will lead to new seminal discoveries and surprises.