Abstract
Activation tagging is an important tool for gene discovery in plants. This method utilizes a T-DNA sequence that contains four tandem copies of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S enhancer sequence or promoters oriented outward to the T-DNA border sequences. These elements enhance the expression of genes neighboring on either side of the randomly integrated T-DNA, resulting in gain-of-function phenotypes. Activation tagging has identified a number of genes, including those fundamental to plant development, such as the floral inducer gene, FLOWERING LOCUS T (FT ). The methods surrounding activation-tagging approaches are described in this chapter. While seeds have generally not been the targets of these methods in the past, activation tagging provides a powerful approach to uncover genes involved in seed dormancy and germination, including those that mediate hormone signal transduction.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery grant awarded to A.R. Kermode.
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Zhao, T., Zeng, Y., Kermode, A.R. (2011). Identification of Seed Dormancy Mutants by Activation Tagging. In: Kermode, A. (eds) Seed Dormancy. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 773. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-231-1_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-231-1_12
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