An alternate hypothesis to explain the high frequency of "revertants" in hothead mutants in Arabidopsis.
Lolle et al. reported a high frequency of genomic changes in ARABIDOPSIS plants carrying the hothead mutation and proposed that the changes observed were the result of a gene correction system mediated by a hypothetical RNA cache. Here, we propose a very different hypothesis to explain the data reported by Lolle et al. Our hypothesis is based on a relatively straightforward developmental aberration in which maternal cells ("Legacy cells") fuse with the developing embryo, resulting in a chimera, which could then give rise to the aberrant genetic segregations reported by Lolle et al.
Krishnaswamy
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Department of Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Molecular Biology Building, Ames, IA 50011, USA. kln@iastate.edu
Peterson
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D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000166:cytology / Q000235:genetics*; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D002678:Chimera; D042822:Genomic Instability; D005838:Genotype; D040582:Inheritance Patterns; D008957:Models, Genetic; D009154:Mutation
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C503530:hothead protein, Arabidopsis