Frequency of transfer of chloroplast DNA to the nucleus

Range ~6.25E-05 genes/pollen grain
Organism Tobacco Nicotiana tabacum
Reference Huang CY, Ayliffe MA, Timmis JN. Direct measurement of the transfer rate of chloroplast DNA into the nucleus. Nature. 2003 Mar 6 422(6927):72-6. abstract and p.75 right column 3rd paragraphPubMed ID12594458
Method (Abstract:) "[Researchers] measured directly the transfer rate of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) into the nucleus of tobacco plants (Nicotiana tabacum). To visualize this process, a nucleus-specific neomycin phosphotransferase gene (neoSTLS2) was integrated into the chloroplast genome, and the transfer of cpDNA to the nucleus was detected by screening for kanamycin-resistant seedlings in progeny."
Comments "...a quantitative estimate of one transposition event in about 16,000 pollen grains for the frequency of transfer of cpDNA to the nucleus [is provided.]...These data demonstrate that DNA is transferred from the chloroplast and integrated into the nucleus at a frequency of one in approximately 16,000 tobacco pollen grains (16 independent, heritable nuclear insertions in 250,000 seedlings). This is a minimum estimate of the proportion of pollen grains that contain newly transposed cpDNA because our experimental approach would have identified only those integrants that were sufficiently large to contain an expressed neoSTLS2 gene."
Entered by Uri M
ID 103096