Summary
An unstable spontaneous mutation in the maize Adh1 gene, coding for alcohol dehydrogenase, was selected by allyl alcohol poisoning of wild type Adh1 pollen from a maize line carrying Ds at the Bz2 locus and one copy of Ac in an unknown position. The mutant has a null phenotype. No wild type pollen grains were detected in strains devoid of Ac, but in the presence of Ac, wild type pollen grains were detected with a frequency of between 10-4 and 10-3. In addition, events have been identified in the aleurone in which reversions of both bz2-m and the unstable adh1 mutation occurred in the same patch of tissue, presumably in response to an alteration of Ac. By these criteria, the Adh1 mutant is caused by Ds. DNA blotting experiments have shown the presence of a 1.3 kb insertion in the Adh1 gene. All or part of this Ds insertion is transcribed, and is detected as an insertion within the ADH1-mRNA. The longer mRNA hybridizes to an authentic Ds probe.
This Ds element differs in size from other known Ds insertions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barclay PC, Brink RA (1954) The relation between modulator and activator in maize. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 40:1118–1126
Burr B, Burr F (1980) Detection of changes in maize DNA at the Shrunken locus due to the intervention of Ds elements. Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol 45:463–465
Burr B, Burr F (1981) Controlling element events at the Shrunken locus in maize. Genetics 98:143–156
Burr B, Burr F (1982) Ds controlling elements of maize at the Shrunken locus are large and dissimilar insertions. Cell 29:977–986
Chaleff D, Mauvais J, McCormick S, Shure M, Wessler S, Fedoroff N (1981) Controlling elements in maize. Carnegie Inst Wash Yearbook 80:158–174
Chourey PS, Nelson OE (1976) The enzymatic deficiency conditioned by the shrunken-1 mutations in maize. Biochem Genet 14:1041–1055
Coe EH Jr., Neuffer MG (1977) The genetics of corn. In: Sprague GF (ed) Corn and corn improvement. American Society of Agronomy Inc, Madison Wisconsin, pp 111–223
Courage-Tebbe U, Döring HP, Geiser M, starlinger P, Tillmann E, Weck E, Werr W (1982) Two partial copies of heterogeneous transposable element Ds cloned from the Shrunken locus in Zea mays L. In: Nagley WA, Peacock WJ, Paterson JA (eds) Manipulation and expression of genes in Eukaryotes. Academic Press, Sydney, p 221–228
Conrage-Tebbe U, Döring HP, Federoff N, Starlinger P (1983) The controlling element Ds at the Shrunken locus in Zea mays: structure of the unstable sh-m5933 allele and several revertants. Cell 34:383–393
Döring HP, Geiser M, Starlinger P (1981) Transposable element Ds at the shrunken locus in Zea mays. Mol Gen Genet 184:377–380
Döring HP, Geiser M, Weck E, Werr W, Courage-Tebbe U, Tillmann E, Starlinger P (1983a) Comparison of genomic clones derived from the Sh gene in Zea mays L. and two mutants of this gene which are caused by the insertion of the controlling element Ds. In: Hollaender A (ed) Genetic engineering of plants. Plenum Press, New York, pp 203–209
Döring HP, Tillmann E, Starlinger, P (1983b) DNA sequence of transposable element Dissociation (Ds) in maize. Nature, in press
Fedoroff N, Chaleff D, Courage-Tebbe U, Döring HP, Geiser M, Starlinger P, Tillmann E, Weck E, Werr W (1983) Mutation at the Shrunken locus in maize caused by the controlling element Ds. In: Ciferri O, Dure L (eds) Structure and function of plant genomes. Chapman and Hall, London, pp 61–72
Fedoroff N, Mauvais J, Chaleff D (1983) Molecular studies at the Shrunken locus in maize caused by the controlling element Ds. J Mol Appl Gen 2:11–30
Fedoroff N, Wessler S, Shure M (1983) Isolation of the Transposable maize controlling element Ac and Ds. Cell, in press
Freeling M (1976) Intragenic recombination in maize: Pollen analysis methods and the effect of parental Adhl isoalleles. Genetics 83:701–717
Freeling M (1977) Spontaneous forward mutation versus reversion frequencies for maize Adh1 in pollen. Nature 267:154–156
Freeling M, Schwartz D (1973) Genetic relationships between the multiple alcohol dehydrogenases of maize. Biochem Genet 8:27–36
Freeling M, Birchler JA (1981) Mutants and variants of the alcohol dehydrogenase gene in maize. In: Setlow JK, Hollaender A (eds) Genetic engineering, principles and methods III. Plenum Press, New York, pp 223–264
Freeling M, Cheng DSK (1978) Radiation-induced alcohol dehydrogenase mutants in maize following allyl alcohol selection of pollen. Genet Res 31:107–129
Geiser M, Döring HP, Wöstemeyer J, Behrens U, Tillmann E, Starlinger P (1980) A cDNA clone from Zea mays endosperm sucrose synthase mRNA. Nucl Acids Res 8:6175–6188
Geiser M, Weck E, Döring HP, Werr W, Courage-Tebbe U, Tillmann E, Starlinger P (1982) Genomic clones of a wild type allele and a transposable element-induced mutant allele of the sucrose synthase gene of Zea mays L. EMBO J 1:1455–1460
Gerlach WL, Pryor AJ, Dennis ES, Ferl FJ, Sachs MM, Peacock WJ (1982) cDNA cloning and induction of the alcohol dehydrogenase gene (Adh1) of maize. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 79:2981–2985
Johns MA, Strommer JN, Freeling M (1983) Exceptionally high levels of restriction site polymorphism in DNA near the maize Adh1 gene. Genetics in press
McClintock B (1948) Mutable loci in maize. Carnegie Inst Wash Yearbook 47:155–169
McClintock B (1951) Chromosome organization and genic expression. Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol 16:13–47
McClintock B (1956) Intranuclear systems controlling gene action and mutation. Brookhaven Symp Biol 8:58–74
McClintock B (1965) The control of gene action in maize. Brookhaven Symp Biol 18:162–184
McCormick S, Mauvais J, Fedoroff N (1982) Evidence that the two sucrose synthase genes in maize are related. Mol Gen Genet 187:494–500
Osterman JC, Schwartz D (1981) Analysis of a controlling element mutation at the Adh locus of maize. Genetics 99:267–273
Peacock WJ, Dennis ES, Gerlach WL, Llewellyn H, Lorz H, Pryor AJ, Sachs MM, Schwartz D, Sutton WD (1983) Gene transfer in maize: controlling elements and the alcohol dehydrogenase gene. Proc Miami Winter Symp. Academic Press, New York
Schwartz D, Osterman J (1976) A pollen selection system for alcohol dehydrogenase-negative mutants in plants. Genetics 83:63–65
Strommer JN, Hake S, Bennetzen J, Taylor CT, Freeling M (1982) Regulatory mutants of the maize Adh1 gene caused by DNA insertions. Nature 300:542–544
Van Shaik NW, Brink RA (1959) Transpositions of modulator, a component of the variegated pericarp allele in maize. Genetics 44:725–738
Wöstemeyer J, Behrens U, Merckelbach A, Müller M, Starlinger P (1981) Translation of Zea mays endosperm sucrose synthase mRNA in vitro. Eur J Biochem 114:39–44
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by H. Saedler
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Döring, H.P., Freeling, M., Hake, S. et al. A Ds-mutation of the Adh1 gene in Zea mays L.. Molec Gen Genet 193, 199–204 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00330667
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00330667