High rates of Ac/Ds germinal transposition in Arabidopsis suitable for gene isolation by insertional mutagenesis.

Overexpression of the Activator (Ac) transposase gene in Arabidopsis thaliana resulted in a minimal germinal transposition frequency of 27% in which independent Dissociation (Ds) transposition events were observed. Molecular analysis of 45 F1 generation Ac/Ds plants indicated that high rates of somatic excision had occurred, and independent germinal insertions were identified in F2 generation progeny plants. A tandem cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) promoter fused to two different Ac coding sequences significantly increased the rate of Ds transposition. The CaMV-Ac fusions activated single and multiple copies of two different Ds elements, DsDHFR and Ds35S-1, and reciprocal crosses resulted in similar transposition frequencies. The improved rate of independent germinal transposition observed makes Arabidopsis an ideal system for insertional mutagenesis.