Bollmann J et al. 1991

• Authors: Bollmann J. Carpenter R. Coen ES.
• Title: Allelic interactions at the nivea locus of Antirrhinum.
• Reference location: Plant Cell. 3(12):1327-36, 1991 Dec.
• Abstract: Most null alleles at the nivea (niv) locus are recessive to Niv+ and, when homozygous, give white flowers rather than the red of the wild type. In contrast, the niv-571 allele is semidominant; although it gives white flowers when homozygous, very pale flowers result when this allele is heterozygous with NIV+. We showed that in heterozygotes, niv-571 acts in trans to inhibit expression of its Niv+ homology 25-fold to 50-fold. The inhibition is reversible after meiosis and partially reversible somatically. The niv-571 allele carries a transposable element Tam3 insertion and three truncated copies of the niv gene, one copy being in inverse orientation. Analysis of two further niv alleles, niv-572 and niv-527, showed that excision of Tam3 from niv-571 does not affect the ability of the allele to repress Niv+ and that one truncated niv copy alone is insufficient to confer semidominance. The detailed structures of various semidominant niv alleles suggest that their effects in trans are not readily explained by production of antisense RNA but are more easily reconciled with a direct recognition/interaction between homologous genes, reminiscent of cosuppression and transvection phenomena described in other systems.

  ---

  This page is part of the Snapdragon Home Page.
  The URL of the Snapdragon Home Page is http://www.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/snapdragon/snapdragon.html
  If you have any comments, additions or corrections to this page of general interest you are invited to use the Snapdragon Guest Book. For personal comments please write to the author(s) of this page or to Kurt Stueber.

  ---

  This page has last been modified on May 26, 1997.