T. Ohba et al., DNA REARRANGEMENT ASSOCIATED WITH THE INTEGRATION OF T-DNA IN TOBACCO- AN EXAMPLE FOR MULTIPLE DUPLICATIONS OF DNA AROUND THE INTEGRATION TARGET, Plant journal, 7(1), 1995, pp. 157-164
Transferred DNA (T-DNA) of the tumor-inducing (Ti) plasmid is transfer
red from Agrobacterium tumefaciens to plant cells and is stably integr
ated into the plant nuclear genome. By the inverse polymerase chain re
action DNA fragments were amplified that contained the T-DNA/plant DNA
junctions from the total DNA of a transgenic tobacco plant that had a
single copy of the T-DNA in a repetitive region of its genome. A DNA
fragment containing the target site was amplified from the total DNA o
f nontransformed tobacco by the polymerase chain reaction using high-s
tringency conditions. Comparison of the nucleotide sequence of the tar
get site with those of the T-DNA/plant DNA junctions revealed that var
ious duplications of short stretches of nucleotide sequences around th
e target and in the incoming T-DNA had accompanied the integration of
the T-DNA. A deletion of 16 bp at the target site was also found and t
he target site was similar, in terms of nucleotide sequence, to region
s around the breakpoints of the T-DNA. This finding provides a clear e
xample of the occurrence of complex rearrangements during the integrat
ion of T-DNA.