Resources for targeted insertional and deletional mutagenesis in Arabidopsis

Plant Mol Biol. 2003 Sep;53(1-2):133-50. doi: 10.1023/B:PLAN.0000009271.08420.d9.

Abstract

The maize transposons Activator (Ac) and Dissociation (Ds) are active in many monocots and dicots, including Arabidopsis. We describe a new Ac-derived transposon construct, designated the Ds-loxP T-DNA, which can be used for both insertional and deletional mutagenesis. There are loxP sites in both orientations on both the transposon and the donor site T-DNA and an arrangement of marker genes that permits selection of transposition events, as well as deletions and inversions extending from the donor site to a transposon reinserted on either side of it. We show that Cre-mediated deletions and inversions occur at a high frequency. The tendency of Ac-Ds transposons to reinsert near the donor site can be used to target both insertional and deletional mutagenesis, but efficient exploitation of this property requires a library of mapped marked donor sites distributed in the genome. We have created a population of independent Ds T-DNA transformants and we have mapped an initial set of 75 Ds T-DNA integration sites. We assessed the potential efficiency of targeted mutagenesis by detecting Ds reinsertion events at several loci over a 400 kb interval from each of two donor sites with different Ds T-DNA constructs. The distribution of reinsertion sites is similar around the two tested loci, with roughly 10, 4, and ca. 1% of reinsertions detected within 1-2 kb of sites 10, 100, and 200-400 kb from the donor site, respectively. To facilitate the use of this targeted mutagenesis system. we have constructed a searchable database of the mapped Ds T-DNA integration sites.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Arabidopsis / genetics*
  • Attachment Sites, Microbiological / genetics
  • Base Sequence
  • DNA Transposable Elements / genetics
  • DNA, Bacterial / genetics
  • Gene Deletion*
  • Integrases / genetics
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Mutagenesis
  • Mutagenesis, Insertional / methods*
  • Plants, Genetically Modified
  • Plasmids / genetics
  • Transformation, Genetic
  • Viral Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • DNA Transposable Elements
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • T-DNA
  • Viral Proteins
  • Cre recombinase
  • Integrases