title: The Bxb1 recombination system demonstrates heritable transmission of site-specific excision in Arabidopsis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The mycobacteriophage large serine recombinase Bxb1 catalyzes site-specific recombination between its corresponding attP and attB recognition sites. Previously, we and others have shown that Bxb1 has catalytic activity in various eukaryotic species including Nicotiana tabacum, Schizosaccharomyces pombe, insects and mammalian cells.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this work, the Bxb1 recombinase gene was transformed and constitutively expressed in Arabidopsis thaliana plants harboring a chromosomally integrated attP and attB-flanked target sequence. The Bxb1 recombinase successfully excised the target sequence in a conservative manner and the resulting recombination event was heritably transmitted to subsequent generations in the absence of the recombinase transgene. In addition, we also show that Bxb1 recombinase expressing plants can be manually crossed with att-flanked target transgenic plants to generate excised progeny.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Bxb1 large serine recombinase performs site-specific recombination in Arabidopsis thaliana germinal tissue, producing stable lines free of unwanted DNA. The precise site-specific deletion produced by Bxb1 in planta demonstrates that this enzyme can be a useful tool for the genetic engineering of plants without selectable marker transgenes or other undesirable exogenous sequences.
authors.affiliation: Crop Improvement and Utilization Research Unit, Western Regional Research Center, USDA-ARS, 800 Buchanan Street, Albany, CA 94710, USA. James.Thomson@ars.usda.gov
authors.forename: James G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.forename: Ronald
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Jamison
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Roger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thilmony
authors.forename: Yuan-Yeu
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Yau
authors.forename: Yueju
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Ow
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular / Q000379:methods*; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D045522:Recombinases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D012694:Serine / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019076:Transgenes / Q000235:genetics; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D045522:Recombinases; D012097:Repressor Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins; C419551:gp69 protein, Mycobacteriophage Bxb1; D012694:Serine