Abstract
A collection of 50,000 Tos17-induced mutant rice lines carrying about 250,000 independent insertions was generated. Although transposon-tagging using Tos17 is feasible, tagging efficiency is relatively low, 5-10%. Several lines of evidence indicated that untagged mutations involve deletions caused by double-strand break repair. These mutations can be detected by PCR-based screening method, providing a new resource for functional analysis of genes. DNA pools derived from 50,000 lines have been produced for reverse genetic screening. For in silico screening of mutants of gene of interest, a large scale analysis of insertion mutants by sequencing the genomic DNA sequence flanking Tos17 insertions is in progress. As of December 2003, about 20,000 independent flanking sequences from 5,000 lines have been determined. In the symposium, we will discuss the current status of functional analysis of genes and future prospects.
