ARABIDOPSIS-THALIANA EXPRESSING THE CAULIFLOWER MOSAIC-VIRUS ORF-VI TRANSGENE HAS A LATE FLOWERING PHENOTYPE

Expression of open reading frame (ORF) VI of cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) in transgenic Arabidopsis thaliana caused a typical syndrome ch aracterised by leaf chlorosis, vein clearing, plant stunting and reduc ed fertility. In addition and in comparison to untransformed controls we observed the formation of much larger rosettes of leaves combined w ith much later flowering and more extensive tillering. In these aspect s, the ORF VI transgenic plants resembled late flowering mutants, All these phenotypes correlated with expression of ORF VI in three lines o f transgenic plants which were produced independently, with different Ti-plasmid derived vectors and with different selective markers. The l ate flowering phenotype cosegregated with the transgene.