US-UK Cooperative Research: Generation and Characterizationof Transgenic Plants Carrying the Maize Transposable Elements Ac

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This award will support collaborative research in genetics between Dr. Jeffrey Bennetzen, Purdue University, and two British plant biologists: Dr. Michael Bevan, AFRC Institute of Plant Science Research, Cambridge, and Dr. Jonathan Jones, Sainsbury Laboratory, Norwich. The maize transposable element Ac has been introduced into tomato plants. These transgenic plants support subsequent excision of the Ac element and its movement to new chromosomal sites within the tomato genome. The Ac element introduced into the tomato plants interrupts an antibiotic resistance gene, and plants with newly excised/transposed Ac elements can be identified via their acquired antibiotic resistance. In collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Jones' laboratory, whose researchers generated these materials, the principal investigator will employ restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) technology to map original and transposed Ac elements in transgenic tomatoes. These studies will determine the insertion specificity of Ac in tomato and will establish a catalogue of lines with Ac elements at linked and unlinked chromosomal sites. Depending upon the status of currently ongoing studies in transformation of wheat and barley at Dr. Michael Bevan's laboratory in Norwich and of maize, sorghum and millet in Dr. Bennetzen's laboratory, the investigators also propose to introduce these engineered Ac elements into one or more of these important crop species. The materials generated will allow future research programs in transposon biology, mutagenesis and tagging in these plant species. The proposed research is timely and very important for further development of methods of isolating agronomically relevant genes from economically important plants. The project will benefit from the complementary expertise of the investigators in the area of gene expression in transgenic plants.