Journal of Applied Genetics 47(2), 2006, pp. 109-111

Screening for mutations affecting sexual reproduction after activation tagging in Arabidopsis thaliana

Giorgio Perrella, Gaetana Cremona, Federica Consiglio, Angela Errico, Ray A. Bressan, Clara Conicella

Abstract: In this work, a seed-set-based screening was performed on 70 lines of Arabidopsis thaliana after activation tagging mutagenesis to identify mutations in reproductive mechanisms. Five mutants showed significantly lower seed set than the wild type and confirmed the phenotype in the progeny. This phenotype was linked with the marker gene bar carried by T-DNA conferring glufosinate resistance. Genetic analysis revealed that the mutation inheritance was sporophytic in 3 mutants and gametophytic in 2 mutants. In addition, 2 mutants had an extra T-DNA copy. Thus activation tagging can be an effective strategy to identify new mutations affecting sporogenesis or gametogenesis.

Key words: activation tagging, Arabidopsis thaliana, gametophytic mutations, sexual reproduction, sporophytic mutations, T-DNA.

Correspondence: C. Conicella, CNR-IGV, Institute of Plant Genetics, Research Division Portici, Via Universita 133, 80055 Portici; Italy; e-mail: conicell@unina.it