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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » Corn Insects and Crop Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #227785
Title: Establishment of a soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) transposon-based mutagenesis repository

Author
item MATHIEU, MELANIE - UNIV OF NEBRASKA
item WINTERS, ELIZABETH - UNIV OF NEBRASKA
item KONG, FANMING - UNIV OF NEBRASKA
item WAN, JINRONG - UNIV OF NEBRASKA
item WANT, SHAOXING - UNIV OF NEBRASKA
item ECKERT, HELEE - ISU
item DONOVAN, CHRISTOPHER - UNIV OF MINNESOTA
item SOMERS, DAVID - UNIV OF MINNESOTA
item WANG, KAN - ISU
item NGUYEN, HENRY - UNIV OF MISSOURI
item Shoemaker, Randy
item STACEY, GARY - UNIV OF MISSOURI
item CLEMENTE, TOM - UNIV OF NEBRASKA

Submitted to: Planta
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/14/2008
Publication Date: 10/15/2008
Citation: Mathieu, M., Winters, E., Kong, F., Wan, J., Want, S., Eckert, H., Donovan, C., Somers, D., Wang, K., Nguyen, H., Shoemaker, R.C., Stacey, G., Clemente, T. 2008. Establishment of a Soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) Transposon-based Mutagenesis Repository. Planta. 229:279-289.

Interpretive Summary: The recent decoding of the entire hereditary complement of soybean chromosomes has identified many thousands of potential genes; the hereditary material that determines all traits for an organism. The inability to accurately guess what the function of a gene might be is a problem for researchers. A resource by which gene function can be determined and studied is needed. In this project the authors developed procedures, using 'jumping genes', to identify gene function by knocking out that function and observing what happens to the plant. They also initiated the development of a long-term repository of the gene mutants developed using these procedures. These procedures and information will be vitally important to soybean geneticists who may discover new and novel traits in soybean. The repository will be critical for long-term studies involving soybean genetics and crop improvement.

Technical Abstract: Soybean is a major crop species providing valuable feedstock for food, feed and biofuel. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in developing genomic resources for soybean, including on-going efforts to sequence the genome. These efforts have identified a large number of soybean genes. Therefore, a major focus is determining the function of these genes, especially those involved in agronomic performance and seed traits. One means to study gene function is through mutagenesis and the study of the resulting phenotypes. Transposon-tagging has been used successfully in both model and crop plants to support studies of gene function. In this report, we describe efforts to generate a transposon-based mutant collection of soybean. The Ds transposon system was used to create activation-tagging, gene and enhancer trap elements. Currently, the repository houses approximately 900 soybean events, with flanking sequence data derived from 200 of these events. Analysis of the insertions revealed that approximately 70% disrupted known genes, with the majority matching sequences in the database derived from either Glycine max or Medicago truncatula sequences. Among the mutants generated, one resulted in male-sterility and was shown to disrupt the strictosidine synthase gene. This example clearly demonstrates that it is possible to disrupt soybean gene function by transposon mutagenesis and to derive useful mutants by this approach in spite of the tetraploid nature of the soybean genome.