Establishment of a soybean (Glycine max Merr. L) transposon-based mutagenesis repository.
Soybean is a major crop species providing valuable feedstock for food, feed and biofuel. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in developing genomic resources for soybean, including on-going efforts to sequence the genome. These efforts have identified a large number of soybean genes, most with unknown function. Therefore, a major research priority is determining the function of these genes, especially those involved in agronomic performance and seed traits. One means to study gene function is through mutagenesis and the study of the resulting phenotypes. Transposon-tagging has been used successfully in both model and crop plants to support studies of gene function. In this report, we describe efforts to generate a transposon-based mutant collection of soybean. The Ds transposon system was used to create activation-tagging, gene and enhancer trap elements. Currently, the repository houses approximately 900 soybean events, with flanking sequence data derived from 200 of these events. Analysis of the insertions revealed approximately 70% disrupted known genes, with the majority matching sequences derived from either Glycine max or Medicago truncatula sequences. Among the mutants generated, one resulted in male-sterility and was shown to disrupt the strictosidine synthase gene. This example clearly demonstrates that it is possible to disrupt soybean gene function by insertional mutagenesis and to derive useful mutants by this approach in spite of the tetraploid nature of the soybean genome.
National Center for Soybean Biotechnology, Division of Plant Sciences, Life Sciences Center, Department of Molecular Microbiology, University of Missouri, Rollins Road, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.
Melanie
M
Mathieu
Elizabeth K
EK
Winters
Fanming
F
Kong
Jinrong
J
Wan
Shaoxing
S
Wang
Helene
H
Eckert
Diane
D
Luth
Margie
M
Paz
Christopher
C
Donovan
Zhanyuan
Z
Zhang
David
D
Somers
Kan
K
Wang
Henry
H
Nguyen
Randy C
RC
Shoemaker
Gary
G
Stacey
Tom
T
Clemente
D019759:Carbon-Nitrogen Lyases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000235:genetics*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000378:metabolism; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D018745:Genome, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D016296:Mutagenesis; D016254:Mutagenesis, Insertional; D010641:Phenotype; D051479:Plant Infertility / Q000235:genetics; D011058:Pollen / Q000166:cytology; D013025:Glycine max / Q000166:cytology / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D014170:Transformation, Genetic; D019895:Transposases / Q000378:metabolism
D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; C036483:T-DNA; D019895:Transposases; D019759:Carbon-Nitrogen Lyases; C022684:strictosidine synthetase