Identification of Genetic Alterations in Carrot Cell Lines Using Transposable Elements Belonging to the Tdc1 Family

Genetic alterations, including somaclonal and culture variations, occur during the culture of plant cells. In this study, we established a colored cell line synthesizing anthocyanin as a variant of a colorless cell line. We examined the insertions of transposable elements belonging to the Tdc1 family in both the colored and colorless cell lines by inverse polymerase chain reaction (IPCR) using the inverted repeat sequence of Tdc1 as a primer. Most amplified DNA fragments differed in length between the colored and colorless cell lines. This reflected the different insertions of transposable elements belonging to the Tdc1 family in each of these cell lines, proposing that the movement of Tdc1 elements may constitute one of the events causing genetic alteration in somaclonal and culture variations. One of the insertion sites was located in the gene encoding an amino acid sequence similar to (S)-reticuline oxidase.