Tryptophan-Requiring Mutants of the Plant Arabidopsis thaliana

Although amino acid auxotrophs are among the most frequently isolated mutations in microorganisms, no mutants that require amino acids have been isolated at the whole plant level. Tryptophan-requiring mutants of the cruciferous plant Arabidopsis thaliana have now been isolated by selecting for resistance to 5-methylanthranilic acid. The tryptophan requirement of one mutant, trpl-1, results from a defect in the second step of the tryptophan pathway catalyzed by anthranilate phosphoribosyl transferase. Mutant trpl-1 plants are highly fluorescent and aromatic because they accumulate anthranilic acid and anthranilate beta-glucoside. Plants homozygous for the trpl-1 mutation exhibit a syndrome of morphological defects suggestive of a defect in the biosynthesis, metabolism, or localization of a tryptophan derivative such as auxin. All of these morphological phenotypes cosegregate with the tryptophan requirement as a simple Mendelian recessive trait.