Molecular and morphological analysis of genetic polymorphisms causing glabrousness in wild populations of Arabidopsis lyrata.

Abstract: Trichome formation in Arabidopsis lyrata is a naturally occurring trait with phenotypic polymorphisms within wild populations. In Swedish accessions of A. lyrata, three genetic polymorphisms situated in the coding region of GL1, an important transcription factor in trichome production, have been identified, and these are candidates for being the cause of a glabrous phenotype. In this study a complementation test has been performed to clarify which mutation/mutations that are detrimental for trichome formation. A set of constructs has been transformed into A. thaliana, a close relative to A. lyrata, and subsequent generations of plants were examined for phenotype, genotype and gene expression. A SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) in the R3 MYB domain of GL1, resulting in a change of an alanine to aspartic acid, was identified as the critical polymorphism. The other two mutations, two indels, were harmless to protein function. The inserted constructs were under control of the native GL1 promoter. Plants that, because of the SNP, lacked trichome production, became totally glabrous.