Mutants of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia with specific resistance to auxin.

We have isolated nine independent auxin-resistant mutants of Nicotiana plumbaginifolia by culturing M2 seedlings in the presence of indole-3-acetic acid ethyl ester or 1-naphthaleneacetic acid at concentrations which significantly inhibit hypocotyl elongation of the wild type. The mutations were induced by treating seed with ethyl methanesulphonate and were found in the course of screening 10,000 individual M2 families. Auxin resistance was in all cases the result of a mutation at a single, nuclear locus. The dominance relationships of two of the mutants could be defined as recessive or dominant; all other mutants showed partial dominance. In contrast to previously described mutants of Arabidopsis and N. plumbaginifolia, all of the present mutants were specifically resistant to auxin; the mutants were cross-resistant to several auxins, but showed no increased resistance to cytokinin, abscisic acid, ethylene or 1-amino-cyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid. The importance of the choice of the selection criterion for the isolation of specific resistance traits is discussed.