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Title: Transposon tagging of disease resistance genes. Progress report, May 1, 1988--1992

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10179207· OSTI ID:10179207

Our goal is to clone genes in lettuce determining resistance to downy mildew. One approach involves the mobilization of transposons into resistance genes to mutate and tag the target gene. Because transposons have yet to be isolated and characterized from lettuce, the majority of our experiments have involved Ac from corn as this is increasingly the best characterized transposon. Over the past several years, various labs have contributed to a detailed understanding of the biology of Ac in corn and heterologous plant species. We have collaborated closely with several of these labs, exchanged materials and incorporated their advances into our analysis of transposition in lettuce. The original proposal described the development of a transposon mutagenesis system for lettuce and its subsequent use to tag disease resistance genes. The development phase involved characterization and manipulation of Ac transposition, identification of suitable whole plant selectable markers for the construction of chimeric non-autonomous elements, and investigation of the stability of resistance genes. Investigation of Ac transposition in lettuce has received the majority of our attention. Initially, we made a simple construct with wildtype Ac and introduced it into lettuce. No transposition was observed; although other labs demonstrated that the same construct was functional in tomato. We then focused on assaying for Ac transposition with constructs of increasing sophistication that had been demonstrated by others to be functional in other species. The latest constructs for transposon mutagenesis clearly demonstrated transposition in lettuce. This allowed us to generate seed stocks that we will start to screen for insertional inactivation of resistance genes this year.

Research Organization:
California Univ., Davis, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
FG03-88ER13904
OSTI ID:
10179207
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/13904-T5; ON: DE94018219; TRN: 94:008057
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: [1994]
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English