Chloroplast targeting of spectinomycin adenyltransferase provides a cell-autonomous marker for monitoring transposon excision in tomato and tobacco.

Antibiotic resistance genes can act as either cell autonomous or non-cell autonomous genetic markers with which to monitor the excision of plant transposons. To convert spectinomycin resistance from a non-cell autonomous resistance to cell autonomous resistance, a transit peptide for chloroplast localization from a petunia ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (rbcS) gene was fused in-frame to the aadA gene, which confers spectinomycin and streptomycin resistance. Constructs were generated in which the expression of this chimeric gene was prevented by the presence, in the 5' untranslated leader, of the maize transposons Activator (Ac) or Dissociation (Ds). When progeny of tobacco or tomato plants transformed with these constructs were germinated on spectinomycin-containing medium, germinally revertant and somatically variegated individuals could be distinguished.