BACKGROUND: Plant transformation via Agrobacterium tumefaciens is characterized by integration of commonly low number of T-DNAs at random positions in the genome. When integrated into an active gene region, promoterless reporter genes placed near the T-DNA border sequence are frequently transcribed and even translated to reporter proteins, which is the principle of promoter- and gene-trap lines. RESULTS: Here we show that even internal promotorless regions of T-DNAs are often transcribed. Such spontaneous transcription was observed in the majority of independently transformed tobacco BY-2 lines (over 65%) and it could effectively induce silencing if an inverted repeat was present within the T-DNA. We documented that the transcription often occurred in both directions. It was not directly connected with any regulatory elements present within the T-DNAs and at least some of the transcripts were initiated outside of the T-DNA. The likeliness of this read-through transcription seemed to increase in lines with higher T-DNA copy number. Splicing and presence of a polyA tail in the transcripts indicated involvement of Pol II, but surprisingly, the transcription was able to run across two transcription terminators present within the T-DNA. Such pervasive transcription was observed with three different T-DNAs in BY-2 cells and with lower frequency was also detected in Arabidopsis thaliana. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate unexpected pervasive read-through transcription of T-DNAs. We hypothesize that it was connected with a specific chromatin state of newly integrated DNA, possibly affected by the adjacent genomic region. Although this phenomenon can be easily overlooked, it can have significant consequences when working with highly sensitive systems like RNAi induction using an inverted repeat construct, so it should be generally considered when interpreting results obtained with the transgenic technology.

• Klíčová slova
• GFP, Inverted repeat, Promoterless, RNAi, Read-through transcription, T-DNA, Tobacco BY-2 cell line,
• MeSH
• Agrobacterium tumefaciens genetika   MeSH
• Arabidopsis genetika   MeSH
• buněčné linie MeSH
• DNA bakterií genetika   MeSH
• genetická transkripce * MeSH
• geneticky modifikované rostliny MeSH
• messenger RNA genetika   MeSH
• obrácené repetice genetika   MeSH
• promotorové oblasti (genetika) genetika   MeSH
• reportérové geny MeSH
• tabák genetika   MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• Názvy látek
• DNA bakterií MeSH
• messenger RNA MeSH
• T-DNA MeSH Prohlížeč

We studied the in trans-silencing capacities of a transgene locus that carried the neomycin phosphotransferase II reporter gene linked to the 35S promoter in an inverted repeat (IR). This transgene locus was originally posttranscriptionally silenced but switched to a transcriptionally silenced epiallele after in vitro tissue culture. Here, we show that both epialleles were strongly methylated in the coding region and IR center. However, by genomic sequencing, we found that the 1.0 kb region around the transcription start site was heavily methylated in symmetrical and non-symmetrical contexts in transcriptionally but not in posttranscriptionally silenced epilallele. Also, the posttranscriptionally silenced epiallele could trans-silence and trans-methylate homologous transgene loci irrespective of their genomic organization. We demonstrate that this in trans-silencing was accompanied by the production of small RNA molecules. On the other hand, the transcriptionally silenced variant could neither trans-silence nor trans-methylate homologous sequences, even after being in the same genetic background for generations and meiotic cycles. Interestingly, 5-aza-2-deoxy-cytidine-induced hypomethylation could partially restore signaling from the transcriptionally silenced epiallele. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that non-transcribed highly methylated IRs are poor silencers of homologous loci at non-allelic positions even across two generations and that transcription of the inverted sequences is essential for their trans-silencing potential.

• MeSH
• alely MeSH
• epigeneze genetická * MeSH
• geneticky modifikované rostliny genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• kanamycinkinasa genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• metylace DNA MeSH
• nekódující RNA analýza   MeSH
• repetitivní sekvence nukleových kyselin * MeSH
• reportérové geny MeSH
• tabák genetika   MeSH
• transgeny * MeSH
• umlčování genů * MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Názvy látek
• kanamycinkinasa MeSH
• nekódující RNA MeSH