Isolation of the new necrotic root mutant brt1
--Hochholdinger, F, Feix, G

During our screening of segregating F2 families derived from potentially mutator MU tagged material we observed seedlings with their roots turning brown approximately one week after germination. This led to a drying out of the above ground part of the growing seedlings and soon after to a dying of the affected seedlings. Histological analyses of primary root sections of the necrotic mutant seedlings (shown to be monogenic recessive and designated brt1 for brown roots 1) revealed that the browning is restricted to the central cylinder including the vascular strands which are essential for water and nutrient uptake. A coloured picture showing the brown roots of the mutant seedlings in comparison with wild type seedlings, as well as the comparative cytological analysis, can be seen on the web version of the MNL. A possible correlation of the brt1 locus to senescence or apoptosis makes this mutant and the search for the affected gene particularly interesting.

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