T-DNA insertion mutagenesis in Arabidopsis: mutational spectrum |
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Authors: | Kenneth A Feldmann |
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Institution: | The Du Pont Company, Willmington, DE 19880, and Department of Plant Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA |
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Abstract: | More than 8000 transformants of Arabidopsis have been generated by treating germinating seeds with cultures of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Genetic characterization of a subset of the transformants indicates that they contain an average of 1.4 inserts each, as assayed by kanamycin resistance. Molecular analysis shows that the inserts are predominantly concatamers of T-DNAs arranged as direct and inverted repeats. More recently these 8000 lines have been screened under a variety of growth conditions for visible alterations in phenotype. More than 1000 putative mutants were observed during the application of these screening procedures. These mutants fall into several general classes: seedling-lethals, size variants, pigment, embryo-defective, reduced-fertility, dramatic (morphological), and physiological. The majority of the mutants (88%) segregate in a Mendelian manner for the mutant phenotype. An analysis of approximately 50 mutants in this group shows that > 80% are tagged with a functional insert. The wide spectrum of mutants observed suggests that it may be feasible to develop a comprehensive collection of mutant lines in which each gene is tagged by a T-DNA insertion. |
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