IDENTIFICATION OF TRANSFERRED DNA INSERTIONS WITHIN ARABIDOPSIS GENESINVOLVED IN SIGNAL-TRANSDUCTION AND ION-TRANSPORT

The transferred DNA (T-DNA) of Agrobacterium tumefaciens serves as an insertional mutagen once integrated into a host plant's genome, As a m eans of facilitating reverse genetic analysis in Arabidopsis thaliana, we have developed a method that allows one to search for plants carry ing T-DNA insertions within any sequenced Arabidopsis gene, Using PCR, we screened a collection of 9100 independent T-DNA-transformed Arabid opsis lines and found 17 T-DNA insertions within the 63 genes analyzed , The genes surveyed include members of various gene families involved in signal transduction and ion transport, As an example, data are sho wn for a T-DNA insertion that was found within CPK-9, a member of the gene family encoding calmodulin-domain protein kinases.