Transposon-associated somatic gai-loss sectors in Arabidopsis

The gai mutation of Arabidopsis confers reduced gibberellin responses, and is inherited as a semidominant trait. Somatic sectors displaying wild-type phenotype were observed in plants which were heterozygous for gai and for a linked Ds element, and which also contained a source of the Ac transposase function. The frequency of these sectors was correlated with the level of transposase conferred by the transposase source, suggesting that the sectors are the result of transposon activity. The appearance of the sectors indicates that gai phenotype is restricted to cells containing a functional gai gene copy. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.