Abstract
Considerable attention has recently been given to gene tagging in rice as a functional genomic tool for elucidating the function of rice genes since the complete sequencing of rice genome had been achieved. We are characterizing a novel DNA transposon system, Dart, and are trying to assess whether the Dart system is useful for gene tagging. While some of the nonautonomous elements nDart in the genome can be transposed in pyl-v line containing an active autonomous element aDart, both nDart and iDart (epigenetically silenced aDart-like elements) remain inactive in pyl-stb and Nipponbare. Some of these dormant nDart and iDart elements are activated by 5-azacitidine (5-azaC) treatment and their transposase gene appear to be expressed. We also found that DNA methylation of the epigenetically silenced dormant aDart becomes hypomethylated after the 5-azaC treatment. These results will be discussed with regard to developing a new gene tagging system using the Dart elements.
