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CATEGORIES:Plant Sciences Talks
SUMMARY:Haploid Arabidopsis thaliana: power tools for plan
 t genetics - Prof Simon Chan (University of Califo
 rnia\, Davis)
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20111010T110000
DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20111010T120000
UID:TALK33567AThttp://talks.cam.ac.uk
URL:http://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/33567
DESCRIPTION:Creating true-breeding homozygotes (e.g. recombina
 nt inbred lines or RILs) from a heterozygous F1 ty
 pically involves many generations of inbreeding. T
 o accelerate this process\, plant breeders produce
  haploid plants from a heterozygous parent\, then 
 convert them into fertile diploids that are homozy
 gous for every locus in the genome. Arabidopsis th
 aliana haploids can now be made through a simple g
 enetic cross. When a cenh3 GFP -tailswap mutant wi
 th altered centromeres is crossed to wild type\, m
 utant chromosomes are lost after fertilization. Up
  to 50% of viable progeny are haploids produced by
  complete genome elimination\, and we have introdu
 ced dominant markers into cenh3 GFP -tailswap to f
 acilitate their selection. Haploid Arabidopsis pla
 nts convert into fertile diploids spontaneously. E
 ach haploid yields >50 fertile diploid seeds throu
 gh random chromosome segregation during meiosis. H
 aploid genetics has many applications: 1) New RIL 
 sets can be made in only two generations. 2) Multi
 ple mutant construction: it is feasible to homozyg
 ose 8 unlinked mutations in a single generation. 3
 ) Gametophyte lethal mutations can be studied in a
  haploid plant. 4) Any nuclear genome can be combi
 ned with the cytoplasmic genomes of choice. 5) Tet
 raploid Arabidopsis can be converted into diploids
  to facilitate genetic manipulations. Lastly\, we 
 are using the principle of centromere-mediated gen
 ome elimination to engineer clonal reproduction (s
 ynthetic apomixis) in Arabidopsis. Crossing a muta
 nt with diploid gametes (spo11 rec8 osd1\, or MiMe
 ) to a mutant with altered centromeres yielded up 
 to 34% clonal progeny with the same heterozygous g
 enotype as their MiMe parent. Thus\, clonal reprod
 uction in an Arabidopsis cross can be created by m
 anipulating four conserved genes. This result rais
 es hope that apomixis can eventually be engineered
  in crops\, allowing vigorous hybrids to be propag
 ated through seed.
LOCATION:Large Lecture Theatre\, Department of Plant Scienc
 es
CONTACT:Dr Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley
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