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H Puchta

Publications and source records attributed to H Puchta.

36 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1993

Homologous recombination in plant cells is enhanced by in vivo induction of double strand breaks into DNA by a site-specific endonuclease.

Induction of double strand breaks (DSBs) is coupled to meiotic and mitotic recombination in yeast. We show that also in a higher eukaryote induction of DSBs is directly correlated with a strong enhancement of recombination frequencies. We cotransfected Nicotiana plumbaginifolia protoplasts with a plasmid carrying a synthetic I-SceI gene, coding for a highly sequence specific endonuclease, together with recombination substrates carrying an I-SceI-site adjacent to their homologous sequences. We measured efficiencies of extrachromosomal recombination, using a well established transient beta-glucuronidase (GUS) assay. GUS enzyme activities were strongly increased when a plasmid carrying the I-SceI gene in sense but not in antisense orientation with respect to the promoter was included in the transfections. The in vivo induced DSBs were detected in the recombination substrates by Southern blotting, demonstrating that the yeast enzyme is functional in plant cells. At high ratios of transfected I-SceI-genes to I-SceI-sites the majority of the I-SceI-sites in the recombination substrates are cleaved, indicating that the induction of the DSBs is the rate limiting step in the described recombination reaction. These results imply that in vivo induction of transient breaks at specific sites in the plant genome could allow foreign DNA to be targeted to these sites via homologous recombination.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1992

Extrachromosomal homologous DNA recombination in plant cells is fast and is not affected by CpG methylation.

Using a sensitive transient assay, we investigated extrachromosomal homologous DNA recombination (ECR) in plant cells. As the plant genome is highly C methylated, we addressed the question of whether CpG methylation has an influence on DNA recombination efficiencies. Whereas the expression level of the fully CpG-methylated DNA molecules was reduced drastically, we found no significant changes in ECR efficiencies between two partly CpG-methylated plasmids or between one fully CpG-methylated and one nonmethylated plasmid. Using a modified polymerase chain reaction analysis, we were able to detect recombination between two fully CpG-methylated plasmids. Furthermore, we characterized the kinetics of the ECR reaction. Cotransfection of plasmids carrying truncated copies of the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene resulted in enzyme activity with a delay of only half an hour compared with that of the plasmid carrying the functional marker gene. This indicates that the ECR reaction itself requires no more than 30 min. By polymerase chain reaction, we were able to detect the recombined GUS gene as early as 2 h after transfection. This result and the time course of the transient GUS activity indicate that ECR occurs mainly early after transfection. The biological significance of this finding is discussed, and properties of ECR and intrachromosomal recombination are compared.

Chromosomes↗
PubMed1991

A transient assay in plant cells reveals a positive correlation between extrachromosomal recombination rates and length of homologous overlap.

An assay to monitor homologous recombination in plant cells has been established by cotransfecting Nicotiana plumbaginifolia protoplasts with different topological forms of plasmids of various deletion mutants of a non-selectable marker gene, the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene. Transient GUS enzyme activities were measured by a sensitive assay. In the nuclear DNA of the cotransfected protoplasts the recombined complete GUS gene could be detected by a specially modified PCR analysis. In comparison to the standard assay, which monitors homologous recombination by integration of a selectable marker, the described assay avoids position effects of gene expression, is fast, easy to handle and large numbers of samples can be processed simultaneously. We were able to demonstrate a positive correlation between the length of overlapping homology (up to 1200 base pairs) of the transfected supercoiled circular or linearized plasmids and the respective GUS activities. We found a significant drop in the recombination rates when the overlap of both substrates was reduced to 456 basepairs or less. The requirement for such a long stretch of homology for efficient recombination might ensure the stability of the rather repetitive plant genome.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1991

The mechanism of extrachromosomal homologous DNA recombination in plant cells.

By cotransfecting plasmids carrying particular mutations in the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) gene into Nicotiana plumbaginifolia protoplasts and by monitoring the recombination rates using a recently developed transient assay, we were able to obtain insights into the mechanism of extrachromosomal recombination operating in plant cells. An exchange of flanking markers takes place in over 90% of the recombination events. In most of the remaining cases two consecutive, independent single crossover events occur. These events involve the same DNA substrate and lead to two successive exchanges of flanking markers, thus mimicking a presumed double crossover intermediate. A comparison of the outcome of our experiments with the predictions of two recombination models originally proposed for mammalian cells indicates that extrachromosomal recombination in plant cells is best described by the single strand annealing model. According to this model all recombination events result in an exchange of flanking markers. Our results rule out the double strand break repair model which predicts that flanking markers are exchanged in only half of all events.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1991

Analysis of unknown DNA sequences by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a single specific primer and a standardized adaptor.

A new procedure for the PCR amplification of unknown DNA sequences adjacent to a known sequence is described. The required but not readily available second primer sequence in the unknown DNA sequence is obtained by creating an overhanging restriction site in the unknown sequence to which a double-stranded oligonucleotide adaptor of known sequence is ligated.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1989

Sequence analysis of minute amounts of viroid RNA using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Rapid communication.

The amount of viroid RNA required for sequence analysis can be reduced by five to six orders of magnitude when a modified "polymerase chain reaction" (PCR) is used for the amplification of the reversely transcribed, overlapping viroid cDNAs. By applying this procedure it is possible to establish the molecular structure also of those viroids which are present only in extremely low amounts in various crop plants and ornamentals.

Base Sequence↗
PubMed1988

The molecular structure of hop latent viroid (HLV), a new viroid occurring worldwide in hops.

A new viroid which does not seem to produce any symptoms of disease, and is therefore tentatively named hop latent viroid (HLV) was found to occur worldwide in hops. HLV proved to be infectious when mechanically inoculated onto viroid- and virus-free hops. The viroid nature of HLV was also substantiated by sequence analysis which revealed that HLV is a circular RNA consisting of 256 nucleotides, that can be arranged into the viroid-specific, rod-like secondary structure. HLV also contains the central conserved region typical for most of the presently known viroids. However HLV does not contain the viroid-specific oligo(A) stretch in the upper left part of its rod-like molecule. Because of this feature and a sequence similarity with the prototypes of the other viroid groups below 55%, HLV can be regarded as the first member of a new viroid group.

Base Sequence↗