Silencing of invertedly repeated transgenes in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Locus KH15, containing two invertedly repeated beta-glucuronidase (gus) genes separated by a palindromic sequence showed low gus expression in both hemizygous and homozygous seedlings, in all plant tissues tested and throughout development assayed up to 70 days after sowing. Removal of one of the gus genes by Cre-mediated recombination resulted in a 10- to 100-fold increase of gus expression, confirming that inverted repeats and transgene silencing are strictly correlated. Crosses between the locus KH15 and highly expressing gus transformants further revealed that invertedly repeated gus genes could induce in trans silencing of gus copies at allelic and nonallelic positions. Double-stranded RNA produced by this KH15 may be responsible for this in trans inactivation.
De Buck
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Vakgroep Moleculaire Genetica, Departement Plantengenetica, Vlaams Interuniversitair Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB), Universiteit Gent, B-9000 Gent, Belgium.
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D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics*; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D020868:Gene Silencing; D005966:Glucuronidase / Q000235:genetics; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D019076:Transgenes
D005966:Glucuronidase