--Peter A. Peterson

This wx allele expresses wx to Wx events. It arose from the cross C-I Sh Bz Wx x C sh bz wx as a colorless wx-mutable kernel. The question of the basis of this control of mutability was tested by crossing the heterozygote, C-I Sh Bz wx-m/C wx, A/a-o by sh wx/wx, a-m1/a-m(r). The male tester represents a reporter allele for En of kernel endosperm a-gene mutability. The rationale is to correlate a-gene reporter allele mutability with wx-mutability in order to test En inheritance. A small sample of progenies of this cross is given below.
 

	Colorless		Spotted
Ear	wx-m	wx	wx-m	wx
#1	122	150	14	0
#2	117	127	9	0
#3	155	201	26	0
#4	90	79	10	0

Two items of interest are apparent. The distribution of wx-m to wx-o is close to 1:1 in this testcross indicating that the wx-m allele is 1/2 of the wx alleles and 1/2 are showing mutability. If the element was independent, this 1:1 ratio would be distorted.

More convincing is the sampling of wx-mutability among the a-reporter alleles. All the spotted that were tested were wx-mutable. This supports the contention that the only En is cosegregating with wx-mutability.

Return to the MNL 63 On-Line Index
Return to the Maize Newsletter Index
Return to the MaizeGDB Homepage