A simple, non-toxic method for separating seeds based on density, and its application in isolating Arabidopsis thaliana seed oil mutants.

ABSTRACT:

Premise

Seed oil is an economically important trait in Brassica oilseed crops. A novel method was developed to isolate Arabidopsis thaliana seeds with altered oil content.

Methods and results

In A. thaliana, seed oil content is correlated with seed density, with high-oil seeds being less dense than wild type and tending to float in solution, and low-oil seeds being denser and tending to sink. In contrast to previous methods, which used toxic chemicals and density gradient centrifugation, different concentrations of calcium chloride (CaCl₂) were employed to separate seeds without the need for centrifugation. The method was validated using known seed oil mutants, and 120,822 T-DNA mutagenized A. thaliana lines were then screened for novel

SUBMITTER: Dean GH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7186901 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature