MOLECULAR AND FUNCTIONAL-CHARACTERIZATION OF SLIDE, AN AC-LIKE AUTONOMOUS TRANSPOSABLE ELEMENT FROM TOBACCO

A new transposable element of tobacco, Slide, was isolated from the tl mutant line, which shows somatic instability, after its transposition into a locus encoding nitrate reductase (NR). The Slide-124 element i s 3733 bp long and its coding sequences show similarities with conserv ed domains of the transposases of Ac, Tam3 and hobo. Excision from the NR locus is detectable in somatic leaf tissues and Slide mobility is triggered by in vitro tissue culture, Slide excision events create foo tprints similar to those left by Ac and Tam3. Tobacco lines derived fr om the tl mutant line seem characterized by unmethylated copies of a f ew members of the highly repetitive Slide family. Slide mobility was m onitored in transient expression assays. In wild-type tobacco protopla sts, the complete Slide element, as well as a defective copy, is able to excise. The complete Slide element, but not the defective version, is able to excise in protoplasts of the heterologous species lettuce ( Lactuca sativa). These results show that Slide carries the functions r equired for its own mobility. and represents the first autonomous Ac-l ike element characterized in Solanaceae species.