Flank matrix attachment regions (MARs) from chicken, bean, yeast or tobacco do not prevent homology-dependent trans-silencing in transgenic tobacco plants

Abstract

The effect of flanking matrix attachment regions (MARs) on homology-dependent trans-silencing was tested using two strong trans-silencing loci. The transgenic tobacco line 271 carries at a single locus a p35S-RiN-tNos transgene which is able to silence, in␣trans and at the transcriptional level, the expression of any p35S-driven transgene irrespective of its position. The transgenic tobacco line 6b8 carries at a single locus a p35S-uidA-tRbcS transgene which is able to silence in␣trans, at the post-transcriptional level, the expression of any uidA-expressing transgene irrespective of its position. Various transgenic tobacco lines carrying a target p35S-uidA-tNos transgene, flanked on each side by MARs from chicken, bean, yeast or tobacco, were crossed with lines carrying the 271 and 6b8 loci. Expression of the target transgene was silenced in all hybrids, irrespective of the presence or absence of MAR sequences. These results therefore demonstrate that MARs are not able to protect transgene expression from strong silencing loci that act in trans.