AUTHOR=Tada Akari , Adachi Fumi , Kakizaki Tomohiro , Inaba Takehito 

TITLE=Production of viable seeds from the seedling lethal mutant ppi2-2 lacking the atToc159 chloroplast protein import receptor using plastic containers, and characterization of the homozygous mutant progeny

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2014.00243

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2014.00243

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=<p>Biogenesis of chloroplasts is essential for plant growth and development. A number of homozygous mutants lacking a chloroplast protein exhibit an albino phenotype. In general, it is challenging to grow albino <italic>Arabidopsis</italic> plants on soil until they set seeds. Homozygous albino mutants are usually obtained as progenies of heterozygous parents. Here, we describe a method of recovering seeds from the seedling lethal <italic>Arabidopsis</italic> mutant <italic>ppi2-2</italic>, which lacks the atToc159 protein import receptor at the outer envelope membrane of chloroplast. Using plastic containers, we were able to grow homozygous <italic>ppi2-2</italic> plants until these set seed. Although the germination rate of the harvested seeds was relatively low, it was still sufficient to allow us to further analyze the <italic>ppi2-2</italic> progeny. Using <italic>ppi2-2</italic> homozygous seeds, we were able to analyze the role of plastid protein import in the light-regulated induction of nuclear genes. We propose that this method be applied to other seedling lethal <italic>Arabidopsis</italic> mutants to obtain homozygous seeds, helping us further investigate the roles of plastid proteins in plant growth and development.</p>