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Molecular Biology of Maize Ac/Ds Elements: An Overview

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Plant Transposable Elements

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1057))

Abstract

Maize Activator (Ac) is one of the prototype transposable elements of the hAT transposon superfamily, members of which were identified in plants, fungi, and animals. The autonomous Ac and nonautonomous Dissociation (Ds) elements are mobilized by the single transposase protein encoded by Ac. To date Ac/Ds transposons were shown to be functional in approximately 20 plant species and have become the most widely used transposable elements for gene tagging and functional genomics approaches in plants. In this chapter we review the biology, regulation, and transposition mechanism of Ac/Ds elements in maize and heterologous plants. We discuss the parameters that are known to influence the functionality and transposition efficiency of Ac/Ds transposons and need to be considered when designing Ac transposase expression constructs and Ds elements for application in heterologous plant species.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grant KU-715/9 and the Dahlem Centre of Plant Sciences (DCPS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Leibniz-Institute for Molecular Pharmacology (FMP), Berlin, Germany

    Katina Lazarow

  2. Institute of Biology/Applied Genetics, Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    My-Linh Doll

  3. Dahlem Centre of Plant Sciences–Angewandte Genetik, Albrecht-Thaer-Weg, Freie Universitat Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Reinhard Kunze

Authors
  1. Katina Lazarow
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  2. My-Linh Doll
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  3. Reinhard Kunze
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Genetics, Development & Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA

    Thomas Peterson

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Lazarow, K., Doll, ML., Kunze, R. (2013). Molecular Biology of Maize Ac/Ds Elements: An Overview. In: Peterson, T. (eds) Plant Transposable Elements. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1057. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-568-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-62703-568-2_5

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