Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1996 Feb 20;93(4):1449–1452. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.4.1449

Heat shock induces a loss of rRNA-encoding DNA repeats in Brassica nigra.

E R Waters 1, B A Schaal 1
PMCID: PMC39959  PMID: 8643652

Abstract

Stress-induced mutations may play an important role in the evolution of plants. Plants do not sequester a germ line, and thus any stress-induced mutations could be passed on to future generations. We report a study of the effects of heat shock on genomic components of Brassica nigra Brassicaceae. Plants were submitted to heat stress, and the copy number of two nuclear-encoded single-copy genes, rRNA-encoding DNA (rDNA) and a chloroplast DNA gene, was determined and compared to a nonstressed control group. We determined whether genomic changes were inherited by examining copy number in the selfed progeny of control and heat-treated individuals. No effects of heat shock on copy number of the single-copy nuclear genes or on chloroplast DNA are found. However, heat shock did cause a statistically significant reduction in rDNA copies inherited by the F1 generation. In addition, we propose a DNA damage-reppair hypothesis to explain the reduction in rDNA caused by heat shock.

Full text

PDF
1449

Images in this article

1451Fig. 1
on p.1451

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Butler D. K. Ribosomal DNA is a site of chromosome breakage in aneuploid strains of Neurospora. Genetics. 1992 Jul;131(3):581–592. doi: 10.1093/genetics/131.3.581. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Cairns J., Foster P. L. Adaptive reversion of a frameshift mutation in Escherichia coli. Genetics. 1991 Aug;128(4):695–701. doi: 10.1093/genetics/128.4.695. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Cairns J., Overbaugh J., Miller S. The origin of mutants. Nature. 1988 Sep 8;335(6186):142–145. doi: 10.1038/335142a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Chang C., Meyerowitz E. M. Molecular cloning and DNA sequence of the Arabidopsis thaliana alcohol dehydrogenase gene. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Mar;83(5):1408–1412. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.5.1408. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Foster P. L., Cairns J. Mechanisms of directed mutation. Genetics. 1992 Aug;131(4):783–789. doi: 10.1093/genetics/131.4.783. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Gailit J. Identification of proteins whose synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is induced by DNA damage and heat shock. Int J Radiat Biol. 1990 May;57(5):981–992. doi: 10.1080/09553009014551101. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Hall B. G. Adaptive evolution that requires multiple spontaneous mutations. I. Mutations involving an insertion sequence. Genetics. 1988 Dec;120(4):887–897. doi: 10.1093/genetics/120.4.887. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Hall B. G. Adaptive evolution that requires multiple spontaneous mutations: mutations involving base substitutions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Jul 1;88(13):5882–5886. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.13.5882. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Hall B. G. Genetics of selection-induced mutations: I. uvrA, uvrB, uvrC, and uvrD are selection-induced specific mutator loci. J Mol Evol. 1995 Jan;40(1):86–93. doi: 10.1007/BF00166599. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hall B. G. On alternatives to selection-induced mutation in the Bgl operon of Escherichia coli. Mol Biol Evol. 1994 Mar;11(2):159–168. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a040100. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Hall B. G. Selection, adaptation, and bacterial operons. Genome. 1989;31(1):265–271. doi: 10.1139/g89-044. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hall B. G. Spontaneous point mutations that occur more often when advantageous than when neutral. Genetics. 1990 Sep;126(1):5–16. doi: 10.1093/genetics/126.1.5. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Harris R. S., Longerich S., Rosenberg S. M. Recombination in adaptive mutation. Science. 1994 Apr 8;264(5156):258–260. doi: 10.1126/science.8146657. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Kim R. A., Wang J. C. A subthreshold level of DNA topoisomerases leads to the excision of yeast rDNA as extrachromosomal rings. Cell. 1989 Jun 16;57(6):975–985. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(89)90336-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Lebel E. G., Masson J., Bogucki A., Paszkowski J. Stress-induced intrachromosomal recombination in plant somatic cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1993 Jan 15;90(2):422–426. doi: 10.1073/pnas.90.2.422. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Lenski R. E., Mittler J. E. The directed mutation controversy and neo-Darwinism. Science. 1993 Jan 8;259(5092):188–194. doi: 10.1126/science.7678468. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. McClanahan T., McEntee K. DNA damage and heat shock dually regulate genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Jan;6(1):90–96. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.1.90. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Mitchel R. E., Morrison D. P. Is DNA damage the signal for induction of thermal resistance? induction by radiation in yeast. Radiat Res. 1984 Aug;99(2):383–393. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Nasrallah J. B., Nasrallah M. E. The molecular genetics of self-incompatibility in Brassica. Annu Rev Genet. 1989;23:121–139. doi: 10.1146/annurev.ge.23.120189.001005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Ozenberger B. A., Roeder G. S. A unique pathway of double-strand break repair operates in tandemly repeated genes. Mol Cell Biol. 1991 Mar;11(3):1222–1231. doi: 10.1128/mcb.11.3.1222. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Vivino A. A., Smith M. D., Minton K. W. A DNA damage-responsive Drosophila melanogaster gene is also induced by heat shock. Mol Cell Biol. 1986 Dec;6(12):4767–4769. doi: 10.1128/mcb.6.12.4767. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Wallace A. G., Schaal S. F., Sugimoto T., Rozear M., Alexander J. A. The electrophysiologic effects of beta-adrenergic blockade and cardiac denervation. Bull N Y Acad Med. 1967 Dec;43(12):1119–1137. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America are provided here courtesy of National Academy of Sciences

RESOURCES