Specific suppression of long terminal repeat retrotransposon mobilization in plants

Anna Brestovitsky, Mayumi Iwasaki, Jungnam Cho, Natthawut Adulyanukosol, Jerzy Paszkowski, Marco Catoni*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

The tissue culture passage necessary for generation of transgenic plants induces genome instability. This instability predominantly involves the uncontrolled mobilisation of LTR retrotransposons (LTR-TEs), which are the most abundant class of mobile genetic elements in plant genomes. Here we demonstrate that in conditions inductive for high LTR-TE mobilisation, like abiotic stress in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and callus culture in rice (Oryza sativa), application of the Reverse Transcriptase (RT) inhibitor known as Tenofovir substantially affects LTR-TE RT activity without interfering with plant development. We observed that Tenofovir reduces extrachromosomal DNA accumulation and prevents new genomic integrations of the active LTR-TE ONSEN in heat-stressed Arabidopsis seedlings, and transposons of Oryza sativa 17 and 19 (Tos17 and Tos19) in rice calli. In addition, Tenofovir allows the recovery of plants free from new LTR-TE insertions. We propose the use of Tenofovir as a tool for studies of LTR-TE transposition and for limiting genetic instabilities of plants derived from tissue culture.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2245–2255
Number of pages11
JournalPlant Physiology
Volume191
Issue number4
Early online date30 Dec 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2023

Bibliographical note

© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of American Society of Plant Biologists.

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