A transient duplication of the acetolactate synthase gene in a cell culture of Datura innoxia

Summary A 2.0 kb fragment of the yeast ILV2 gene, which codes for the target enzyme acetolactate synthase (ALS) of the herbicide chlorsulfuron, was shown to hybridize to the nuclear DNA of a haploid cell culture of Datura innoxia P. Mill. Nuclear DNA of a chlorsulfuron resistant line of D. innoxia, CSR6, gave a prominent 2.65 kb band when cleaved by either EcoRI or HindIII. The 2.65 kb band has been shown to hybridize with the yeast ILV2 probe. A herbicide resistant line descended from CSR6 by continuous culture resulted in the loss of the 2.65 kb restriction fragment. These observations suggest that CSR6 resulted from a large tandem duplication of the ALS gene and that a point mutation for herbicide resistance in an ALS gene repeat unit of the duplication was selected during subsequent growth of the resistant line.