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A heat‐shock promoter fusion to the Ac transposase gene drives inducible transposition of a Ds element during Arabidopsis embryo development
Author(s) -
Balcells Lluis,
Sundberg Eva,
Coupland George
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
the plant journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.058
H-Index - 269
eISSN - 1365-313X
pISSN - 0960-7412
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-313x.1994.00755.x
Subject(s) - transposase , biology , transposable element , arabidopsis , transposition (logic) , embryo , gene , cotyledon , arabidopsis thaliana , genetics , botany , mutant , linguistics , philosophy
Summary A heat‐shock promoter fusion to the Ac transposase gene ( hs ::TPase) was constructed and introduced into Arabidopsis. In five transformants containing the fusion the abundance of transposase mRNA increased approximately 120‐fold on exposure to high temperatures. Hybrid plants containing hs ::TPase and a Ds element inserted in a streptomycin resistance gene ( Ds ::SPT) were made and these plants were self‐fertilized either after heat shocking at different stages in development or without exposure to high temperature. The progeny of these plants were sown on streptomycin‐containing medium and the frequency with which variegated or streptomycin‐resistant (strep R ) seedlings occurred was used as an indication of the frequency of Ds excision. Very few of the progeny of plants not exposed to heat shock or of those heat shocked only during vegetative development were variegated or strep R . However, plants that were heat shocked after the appearance of flower buds and during seed development produced high frequencies (approaching 100%) of variegated, but very few strep R , progeny. Furthermore, when variegated seedlings were grown to maturity and self‐fertilized without further exposure to heat shock then strep R seedlings often occurred at high frequency among their progeny. Southern analysis indicated that the majority of these strep R plants contained a transposed Ds at a new location. These data indicate that in response to heat shock Ds excision frequently occurs in embryonic cells which ultimately give rise to the gametes, as well as in cells of the developing cotyledons. The importance of an inducible transposon system for transposon tagging is discussed.