Deletion mutation as a means of isolating avirulence genes in flax rust.

The interaction between flax rust,Melampsora lini, and its host, flax,Linum usitatissimum, has been extensively studied, and certain genetic features make the system an appropriate choice to utilize in isolating genes conferring avirulence in rust. A mutant that was selected for virulence on Lx plants was isolated, after treatment with gamma rays, from a strain that is genotypicallyA-L5,A-L6,A-L7,A-Lx/A-L5,A-L6,a-L7,a-Lx. These four specificities are tightly linked. Breeding tests showed that this mutant was genotypicallyA-L5,A-L6,a-L7,a-Lx/a-L5,a-L6,a-L7,a-Lx and, when made homozygous for the mutant chromosome, was virulent onL5,L6,L7, andLx. This result excludes somatic recombination as a source of the mutation and indicates deletion as a likely cause. A 250 bp genomic sequence from a strain of rust homozygous for these four linked avirulence genes (A-L5,A-L6,A-L7,A-Lx) was isolated, using a method that allows the differential cloning of the specific DNA sequences located within a deletion in the mutant genome. This clone hybridized to two EcoRI bands in genomic DNA from the strain homozygous for the four linked avirulence genes and from the strain homozygousA-L5 andA-L6 and heterozygousA-L7 andA-Lx, but showed no homology to DNA from the strain carrying the putative chromosomal deletion. The correlation between the genetically characterized deletion mutation and the isolation of a sequence from within a region of chromosome missing from this strain of rust suggests that this 250 bp tract may be part of, or closely linked to, the defined set of avirulence genes.

Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA have sequence homology with a chloroplast gene.

A PstI 7.7 kbp fragment from chloroplast (ct) DNA of spinach shows homology to an EcoRI 8.3 kbp fragment of mitochondrial (mt) DNA and in turn, both are homologous to a number of common regions of nuclear (n) DNA. The common area of homology between the chloroplast and mitochondrial fragments is between a KpnI 1.8 segment internal to the PstI sites in the ctDNA and an EcoRI/BamHI 2.9 kbp fragment at one end of the mitochondrial 8.3 kbp fragment. The KpnI 1.8 kbp ctDNA fragment is within a structural gene for the P700 chlorophyll a apoprotein. Further analysis of this KpnI 1.8 kbp fragment confined the homologous region in mtDNA to a ct 0.8 kbp HpaII fragment. These smaller pieces of the organellar genomes share homologies with nuclear DNA as well as displaying unique hybridization sites. The observations reported here demonstrate that there is a common or closely related sequence in all three genetic compartments of the cell.