Genomic copy number variation induced by TAQing system in Arabidopsis thaliana.. Arabidopsis thaliana

We developed an artificial genome evolution system, which we termed ‘TAQing’, by introducing multiple genomic DNA double-strand breaks using a heat-activatable endonuclease in Arabidopsis plant. The heat-activated endonuclease, TaqI, induced random DSBs, which resulted in diverse types of chromosomal rearrangements including translocations. To evaluate the potential of TAQing in multicellular organisms, we tested it in diploid and tetraploid Arabidopsis plants. In 9 out of 96 TQ4 plants, we detected 22 large copy number variations (CNVs) events compared witn wild type plant genome, whereas no CNV was found in the 16 control tetraploid plants, and 12 TQ2 plants. The combination of artificially introduced DSBs with whole-genome duplication (WGD) in plants enabled more complex genome reorganization. Overall design: Array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) of 16 control tetraploid wild type strains (WT4), 80 TAQing tetraploid strain (TQ4), 1 control dioloid (1406), 12 TAQing diploid strain (TQ2) and 6 progenines of TQ4 strain.