From our graveyard of unpublished but interesting results: an Arabidopsis cop1 mutant allele isolated in our lab carries a G to T base change that results in a C52F amino acid change. Plants homozygous for this mutation in the COP1 RING finger display a fully penetrant strong constitutive photomorphogenic phenotype (see illustration).
We had to solve a genetic riddle to find out that we obtained this allele as a spontaneous mutation that occurred in an already triple mutant background. It cost us lots of energy (i.e. time and some money), but it was fun solving the riddle. I’m afraid however that we won’t find the energy to publish this in a conventional way. So be careful: the above is true, but not peer-reviewed 😉
