A flax transposon identified in two spontaneous mutant alleles of the L6 rust resistance gene

• Published in: The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 365 - 369
• Main Authors: Luck, Joanne E., Lawrence, Greg J., Finnegan, E. Jean, Jones, David A., Ellis, Jeff G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01-11-1998; Blackwell Science
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Alleles; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; DNA Transposable Elements; DNA, Plant; Flax - genetics; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Genes. Genome; Genetics and breeding of economic plants; Homozygote; Linum usitatissimum; Molecular and cellular biology; Molecular genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutation; Pest resistance; Plant pathogens; Plant Proteins - genetics; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Varietal selection. Specialized plant breeding, plant breeding aims; Plant pathogen; AT rich sequence; Transposable element; Fiber crop; Linum usitatissimum; Disease resistance; Phenotype; Microorganism resistance; Linaceae; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Spermatophyta; Mutation; Inverted repeated sequence; Sequencing
• ISSN: 0960-7412; 1365-313X
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-313x.1998.00306.x

Summary
Two spontaneous mutant alleles of the
L6
flax rust resistance gene,
l6‐X3A
and
l6‐X117
, contain the same transposable element designated
dLute
(defective
Linum usitatissimum
transposable element). The element is 314 bp long, 70% AT‐rich and, because it contains no extended open reading frame, is probably non‐autonomous. It has 14 bp imperfect terminal inverted repeats related to those in the
Ac
family of plant transposons and, like
Ac
, causes 8 bp target site duplications upon insertion. Multiple copies of
dLute
‐related sequences exist in the flax genome. Rust resistant revertants were recovered amongst the progeny of both mutants and reversion was associated with excision of
dLute
. Excision either restored the wild‐type
L6
sequence or was imprecise, leaving sequence alterations (‘footprints’) resulting in one to three amino acid alterations in the L6 protein. No phenotypic differences were discerned between plants containing the standard and revertant
L6
alleles.