Large-scale analysis of albino and pale green mutants using Ac/Ds transposon system in Arabidopsis.

Abstract

We transposed Dissociation elements from 3 start loci on chromosome 5 and 4 loci on chromosome 1 in Arabidopsis thaliana and made 9425 Ds-tagged lines of F3 plants carrying independent transposition events. To study function of nuclear genes involved in chloroplast development and photosynthesis, we have screened 9425 lines to isolate 87 mutants with albino or pale green (apg) phenotypes. Forty-two albino phenotypes out of 87 mutants were tagged with Ds insertions. We estimated that 50 % mutants from Ds transposon-mutagenized population are tagged with Ds. Our Ds tagging population is more efficient for gene isolation than T-DNA tagging populations. Twenty-one of the apg mutants were simple albino, 15 were shown pale green, 4 were white cotyledon and 3 were variegated. In 40 apg mutants, Ds element was inserted into protein-coding genes. Twenty-two genes in the 40 mutants have sequence homology with reported proteins whereas 18 are unknown genes.