Abstract
Excess boron is toxic to living organisms, but its mechanisms of actions remains largely uncovered. We reported inhibition of splicing as one of the molecular mechanism of boron toxicity. As a new approach, we screened Arabidopsis mutants sensitive to high boron. Growth of Arabidopsis Col-0 was examined on media containing a range of concentrations of boron. Root growth was partly inhibited with 3 mM boric acid. 20,000 ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenized F2 seeds were grown on media containing 3 mM boric acid and the lines with reduced root growth were transferred to media containing normal (0.03 mM) concentration of boric acid. Those lines with recovered root growth were selected and progenies were tested for segregation, extents of phenotypes. Among the lines obtained, we selected seven lines for further analysis. At least four loci were represented among these lines.
