Arabidopsis FOX line: About a pale green line that showe early flowering and tall phenotype

Abstract

We describe here the establishment of a novel gain of function system named as Fox hunting system (Full-length cDNA over-expresser gene-hunting system) for random over-expression of a normalized Arabidopsis full-length cDNA library. Full-length cDNAs from Arabidopsis were sequenced and c.a. 10,000 non-redundant clones were randomly expressed in Arabidopsis plants. We observed 1,487 morphological mutant candidates while growing 15,547 T1 transformants. One of the most frequently observed phenotypes was that of pale green leaves and stems. When 115 such T2 lines were observed 59 of these lines showed the pale green phenotype in dominant or semi-dominant fashion. One of such pale green line showed early flowering and tall phenotypes. Full-length cDNA causing the phenotype encode small protein (95 A.a.) having signature of secretion proteins. Usefulness of the FOX-hunting system to elucidate the function of unknown genes will be discussed.