Isolation and characterization of plant genes coding for acetolactate synthase, the target enzyme for two classes of herbicides.

Acetolactate synthase (ALS) is the first common enzyme in the biosynthetic pathways to valine, isoleucine, and leucine. It is the target of two structurally unrelated classes of herbicides, the sulfonylureas and the imidazolinones. Genomic clones encoding ALS have been isolated from the higher plants Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana tabacum, using a yeast ALS gene as a heterologous hybridization probe. Clones were positively identified by the homology of their deduced amino acid sequences with those of yeast and bacterial ALS isozymes. The tobacco and Arabidopsis ALS genes have approximately 70% nucleotide homology, and encode mature proteins which are approximately 85% homologous. Little homology is seen between the amino acid sequences of the presumptive N-terminal chloroplast transit peptides. Both plant genes lack introns. The tobacco ALS gene was isolated from a line of tobacco which is resistant to the sulfonylurea herbicides due to an alteration in ALS. The tobacco gene which was isolated codes for an ALS that is sensitive to the herbicides, as assayed by transformation of the gene into sensitive tobacco cells.