Mapping genes essential for embryo development in Arabidopsis thaliana.

We have previously isolated and characterized over 90 recessive mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana defective in embryo development. These emb mutants have been shown to differ in lethal phase, extent of abnormal development, and response in culture. We demonstrate in this report the value and efficiency of mapping emb genes relative to visible and molecular markers. Sixteen genes essential for embryo development were mapped relative to visible markers by analyzing progeny of selfed F1 plants. Embryonic lethals are now the most common type of visible marker included on the linkage map of Arabidopsis. Backcrosses were used in several cases to orient genes relative to adjacent markers. Three genes were located to chromosome arms with telotrisomics by screening for a reduction in the percentage of aborted seeds produced by F1 plants. A restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) mapping strategy that utilizes pooled EMB/EMB F2 plants was devised to increase the efficiency of mapping embryonic lethals relative to molecular markers. This strategy was tested by demonstrating that the bio1 locus of Arabidopsis is within 0.5 cM of an existing RFLP marker. Mapping embryonic lethals with both visible and molecular markers may therefore help to identify large numbers of genes with essential functions in Arabidopsis.