Mutant

About: Mutant is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 74520 publications have been published within this topic receiving 3477079 citations.

The Arabidopsis male-sterile mutant, opr3, lacks the 12-oxophytodienoic acid reductase required for jasmonate synthesis.

Abstract: Jasmonic acid (JA) and its precursor 12-oxophytodienoic acid (OPDA) act as plant growth regulators and mediate responses to environmental cues. To investigate the role of these oxylipins in anther and pollen development, we characterized a T-DNA-tagged, male-sterile mutant of Arabidopsis, opr3. The opr3 mutant plants are sterile but can be rendered fertile by exogenous JA but not by OPDA. Cloning of the mutant locus indicates that it encodes an isozyme of 12-oxophytodienoate reductase, designated OPR3. All of the defects in opr3 are alleviated by transformation of the mutant with an OPR3 cDNA. Our results indicate that JA and not OPDA is the signaling molecule that induces and coordinates the elongation of the anther filament, the opening of the stomium at anthesis, and the production of viable pollen. Just as importantly, our data demonstrate that OPR3 is the only isoform of OPR capable of reducing the correct stereoisomer of OPDA to produce JA required for male gametophyte development.

Modulation of activity of the promoter of the human MDR1 gene by Ras and p53.

Abstract: Drug resistance in human cancer is associated with overexpression of the multidrug resistance (MDR1) gene, which confers cross-resistance to hydrophobic natural product cytotoxic drugs. Expression of the MDR1 gene can occur de novo in human cancers in the absence of drug treatment. The promoter of the human MDR1 gene was shown to be a target for the c-Ha-Ras-1 oncogene and the p53 tumor suppressor gene products, both of which are associated with tumor progression. The stimulatory effect of c-Ha-Ras-1 was not specific for the MDR1 promoter alone, whereas a mutant p53 specifically stimulated the MDR1 promoter and wild-type p53 exerted specific repression. These results imply that the MDR1 gene could be activated during tumor progression associated with mutations in Ras and p53.

Using Drosophila melanogaster as a Model for Genotoxic Chemical Mutational Studies with a New Program, SnpSift

Abstract: This paper describes a new program SnpSift for filtering differential DNA sequence variants between two or more experimental genomes after genotoxic chemical exposure. Here, we illustrate how SnpSift can be used to identify candidate phenotype-relevant variants including single nucleotide polymorphisms, multiple nucleotide polymorphisms, insertions, and deletions (InDels) in mutant strains isolated from genome-wide chemical mutagenesis of Drosophila melanogaster. First, the genomes of two independently isolated mutant fly strains that are allelic for a novel recessive male-sterile locus generated by genotoxic chemical exposure were sequenced using the Illumina next-generation DNA sequencer to obtain 20- to 29-fold coverage of the euchromatic sequences. The sequencing reads were processed and variants were called using standard bioinformatic tools. Next, SnpEff was used to annotate all sequence variants and their potential mutational effects on associated genes. Then, SnpSift was used to filter and select differential variants that potentially disrupt a common gene in the two allelic mutant strains. The potential causative DNA lesions were partially validated by capillary sequencing of polymerase chain reaction-amplified DNA in the genetic interval as defined by meiotic mapping and deletions that remove defined regions of the chromosome. Of the five candidate genes located in the genetic interval, the Pka-like gene CG12069 was found to carry a separate pre-mature stop codon mutation in each of the two allelic mutants whereas the other four candidate genes within the interval have wild-type sequences. The Pka-like gene is therefore a strong candidate gene for the male-sterile locus. These results demonstrate that combining SnpEff and SnpSift can expedite the identification of candidate phenotype-causative mutations in chemically mutagenized Drosophila strains. This technique can also be used to characterize the variety of mutations generated by genotoxic chemicals.