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Inactivation of Maize Transposable Elements

  • Chapter
Homologous Recombination and Gene Silencing in Plants

Abstract

Maize transposons were the first genetic elements in plants known to be subject to reversible inactivation. Early in the study of the Suppressor-mutator trans-posable element, McClintock identified cultures in which the “suppressor” and the “mutator” components of the element had a tendency to disappear and reappear simultaneously (McClintock 1957, McClintock 1958). In 1958 she wrote:

The Spm element originally present in the a m-12 cultures… did not always effect suppression of gene action in all parts of a plant or kernel. Mutations, however, occurred only in those parts of the plant or kernel in which gene expression was suppressed.

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Abbreviations

Ac :

Activator

bz :

bronze

CaMV:

cauliflower mosaic virus

Ds :

Dissociation

DCR:

downstream control region

dSpm :

transposition”defective Spm

En :

Enhancer

GUS:

β-glucuronidase

I :

Inhibitor

Mu :

Mutator

ORF:

open reading frame

sh :

shrunken

Spm :

Suppressor-mutator

Spm-c :

cycling Spm

Spm-w :

weak Spm

TIR:

terminal inverted repeat

UCR:

upstream control region

wx :

waxy

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Authors
  1. Nina V. Fedoroff
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  2. Vicki Chandler
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Friedrich Miescher Institute, Basel, Switzerland

    Jerzy Paszkowski

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Fedoroff, N.V., Chandler, V. (1994). Inactivation of Maize Transposable Elements. In: Paszkowski, J. (eds) Homologous Recombination and Gene Silencing in Plants. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1094-5_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1094-5_15

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