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Molecular cloning of a maize gene involved in photosynthetic membrane organization that is regulated by Robertson's Mutator.
Author(s) -
Martienssen R. A.,
Barkan A.,
Freeling M.,
Taylor W. C.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
the embo journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.484
H-Index - 392
eISSN - 1460-2075
pISSN - 0261-4189
DOI - 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb03553.x
Subject(s) - biology , cloning (programming) , gene , genetics , molecular cloning , photosynthesis , botany , gene expression , computer science , programming language
The maize photosynthetic mutant hcf106 has a distinctive and unusual thylakoid membrane organization, and fails to accumulate three of the five thylakoid membrane protein complexes. This mutant arose in a Robertson's Mutator background, and shows somatic instability typical of a transposon‐induced allele. In addition, hcf106 is suppressed when Mu1 elements are inactive and modified in their terminal inverted repeats. Thus plants homozygous for the mutant allele adopt a mutant phenotype only when Mu1 elements are active and unmodified. DNA from the mutant allele has been cloned by ‘transposon‐tagging’ using the transposon Mu1, and the identity of the clone confirmed by observing somatic excision of the transposon in a revertant sector. A 1.2 kb transcript homologous to the cloned DNA is found in wild‐type and suppressed seedlings, but is not found in mutant seedlings, suggesting that suppression is mediated at the level of transcript accumulation.