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The novel Arabidopsis thaliana svt2 suppressor of the ascorbic acid-deficient mutant vtc1-1 exhibits phenotypic and genotypic instability.

ABSTRACT: Ascorbic acid is a potent antioxidant that detoxifies reactive oxygen species when plants are exposed to unfavorable environmental conditions. In addition to its antioxidant properties, ascorbic acid and its biosynthetic precursors fulfill a variety of other physiological and molecular functions. A mutation in the ascorbic acid biosynthesis gene VTC1, which encodes GDP-mannose pyrophosphorylase, results in conditional root growth inhibition in the presence of ammonium. To isolate suppressors of vtc1-1, which is in the Arabidopsis Columbia-0 background, seeds of the mutant were subjected to ethyl methanesulfonate mutagenesis. A suppressor mutant of vtc1-1 2, svt2, with wild-type levels of ascorbic acid and root growth similar to the wild type in the presence of ammonium was isolated. Interestingly, svt2 has Arabidopsis Landsberg erecta features, although svt2 is delayed in flowering and has an enlarged morphology. Moreover, the svt2 genotype shares similarities with L er polymorphism markers and sequences, despite the fact that the mutant derived from mutagenesis of Col-0 vtc1-1 seed. We provide evidence that svt2 is not an artifact of the experiment, a contamination of L er seed, or a result of outcrossing of the svt2 mutant with L er pollen. Instead, our results show that svt2 exhibits transgenerational genotypic and phenotypic instability, which is manifested in a fraction of svt2 progeny, producing revertants that have Col-like phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. Some of those Col-like revertants then revert back to svt2-like plants in the subsequent generation. Our findings have important implications for undiscovered phenomena in transmitting genetic information in addition to the Mendelian laws of inheritance. Our results suggest that stress can trigger a genome restoration mechanism that could be advantageous for plants to survive environmental changes for which the ancestral genes were better adapted.

SUBMITTER: Kempinski CF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3938180 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The novel Arabidopsis thaliana svt2 suppressor of the ascorbic acid-deficient mutant vtc1-1 exhibits phenotypic and genotypic instability.

Kempinski Chase F CF Crowell Samuel V SV Smeeth Caleb C Barth Carina C

F1000Research 20130110

Ascorbic acid is a potent antioxidant that detoxifies reactive oxygen species when plants are exposed to unfavorable environmental conditions. In addition to its antioxidant properties, ascorbic acid and its biosynthetic precursors fulfill a variety of other physiological and molecular functions. A mutation in the ascorbic acid biosynthesis gene VTC1, which encodes GDP-mannose pyrophosphorylase, results in conditional root growth inhibition in the presence of ammonium. To isolate suppressors of ...[more]

PMID: 24627766

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Project description:BackgroundThree mutations in Arabidopsis thaliana strain Columbia - cpr1, snc1, and bal - map to the RPP5 locus, which contains a cluster of disease Resistance genes. The similar phenotypes, gene expression patterns, and genetic interactions observed in these mutants are related to constitutive activation of pathogen defense signaling. However, these mutant alleles respond differently to various conditions. Exposure to mutagens, such as ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) and gamma-irradiation, induce high frequency phenotypic instability of the bal allele. In addition, a fraction of the bal and cpr1 alleles segregated from bal x cpr1 F1 hybrids also show signs of phenotypic instability. To gain more insight into the mechanism of phenotypic instability of the bal and cpr1 mutations, we systematically compared the behavior of these unusual alleles with that of the missense gain-of-function snc1 allele in response to DNA damage or passage through F1 hybrids.ResultsWe found that the cpr1 allele is similar to the bal allele in its unstable behavior after EMS mutagenesis. For both the bal and cpr1 mutants, destabilization of phenotypes was observed in more than 10% of EMS-treated plants in the M1 generation. In addition, exceptions to simple Mendelian inheritance were identified in the M2 generation. Like cpr1 x bal F1 hybrids, cpr1 x snc1 F1 hybrids and bal x snc1 F1 hybrids exhibited dwarf morphology. While only dwarf F2 plants were produced from bal x snc1 F1 hybrids, about 10% wild-type F2 progeny were produced from cpr1 x snc1 F1 hybrids, as well as from cpr1 x bal hybrids. Segregation analysis suggested that the cpr1 allele in cpr1 x snc1 crosses was destabilized during the late F1 generation to early F2 generation.ConclusionWith exposure to EMS or different F1 hybrid contexts, phenotypic instability is induced for the bal and cpr1 alleles, but not for the snc1 allele. Our results suggest that the RPP5 locus can adopt different metastable genetic or epigenetic states, the stability of which is highly susceptible to mutagenesis and pairing of different alleles.

Dataset Information

The novel Arabidopsis thaliana svt2 suppressor of the ascorbic acid-deficient mutant vtc1-1 exhibits phenotypic and genotypic instability.

Publications

The novel Arabidopsis thaliana svt2 suppressor of the ascorbic acid-deficient mutant vtc1-1 exhibits phenotypic and genotypic instability.

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