title: Reevaluation of the reliability and usefulness of the somatic homologous recombination reporter lines.
abstract: A widely used approach for assessing genome instability in plants makes use of somatic homologous recombination (SHR) reporter lines. Here, we review the published characteristics and uses of SHR lines. We found a lack of detailed information on these lines and a lack of sufficient evidence that they report only homologous recombination. We postulate that instead of SHR, these lines might be reporting a number of alternative stress-induced stochastic events known to occur at transcriptional, posttranscriptional, and posttranslational levels. We conclude that the reliability and usefulness of the somatic homologous recombination reporter lines requires revision. Thus, more detailed information about these reporter lines is needed before they can be used with confidence to measure genome instability, including the complete sequences of SHR constructs, the genomic location of reporter genes and, importantly, molecular evidence that reconstituted gene expression in these lines is indeed a result of somatic recombination.
authors.affiliation: Plant Molecular Engineering Group, Institute of Cellular and Molecular Botany, University of Bon, 53115 Bon, Germany. ulker@uni-bonn.de
authors.forename: Bekir
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ülker
authors.forename: Carl Maximilian
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Hommelsheim
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Berson
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Balakumaran
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chandrasekar
authors.forename: Ahmet Can
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Olcay
authors.forename: Kenneth Wayne
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Berendzen
authors.forename: Lamprinos
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Frantzeskakis
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods*; D004260:DNA Repair; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017930:Genes, Reporter / Q000235:genetics*; D042822:Genomic Instability / Q000235:genetics*; D059765:Homologous Recombination / Q000235:genetics*; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013312:Stress, Physiological