Isolation of sequences flanking Ac insertion sites by Ac casting.

Localizing Ac insertions is a fundamental task in studying Ac-induced mutation and chromosomal rearrangements involving Ac elements. Researchers may sometimes be faced with the situation in which the sequence flanking one side of an Ac/Ds element is known, but the other flank is unknown. Or, a researcher may have a small sequence surrounding the Ac/Ds insertion site and needs to obtain additional flanking genomic sequences. One way to rapidly clone unknown Ac/Ds flanking sequences is via a PCR-based method termed Ac casting. This approach utilizes the somatic transposition activity of Ac during plant development, and provides an efficient means for short-range genome walking. Here we describe the principle of Ac casting, and show how it can be applied to isolate Ac macrotransposon insertion sites.