Bn1 status of selected inbred lines
--Stinard, P

As reported in the 1995 MNL (MNL 69:129-130), the Maize COOP has undertaken a survey of its most commonly used inbred lines to determine which ones carry Bn1, a mutation that conditions brown aleurone. This mutant is most easily observed on homozygous y1 endosperms, and gives them a pale yellow appearance. Homozygous bn1 on y1 gives a pure white endosperm appearance. Bn1 can mask the appearance of certain carotenoid mutants such as y9, and for that reason, lines carrying the bn1 allele are desirable for the propagation of these mutants. The experiment was set up as follows: Each inbred line studied was crossed to a homozygous Bn1-Ref y1 line. The F1 was backcrossed by a homozygous bn1 y1 line. If the inbred line carries Bn1, all of the kernels in the y1 class will be pale yellow (half Bn1-Ref Bn1-Ref bn1 aleurones and half Bn1-Inbred Bn1-Inbred bn1 aleurones). If the inbred line is bn1, half of the kernels in the y1 class will be pale yellow (Bn1-Ref Bn1-Ref bn1 aleurones), and half will be white (bn1 bn1 bn1 aleurones). The results, presented in Table 1, indicate that the following inbred lines are homozygous for bn1: B77, H99, KYS, L317, M14, Mo17, and Q66. The inbred lines A632, A636, B73, B79, Oh43, Q67, W22, and W23 are homozygous for Bn1. The bn1 lines will be used in our breeding program for carotenoid mutants.

 Table 1. Counts of pale yellow and white kernels from the cross (inbred line X Bn1 y1) X bn1 y1.
 

Inbred Line	pale yellow	white	Bn1 status of inbred
A632	320	0	Bn1
A636	852	0	Bn1
B73	947	0	Bn1
B77	299	312	bn1
B79	921	0	Bn1
H99	225	212	bn1
KYS	167	161	bn1
L317	340	343	bn1
M14	218	236	bn1
Mo17	189	192	bn1
Oh43	537	0	Bn1
Q66	351	356	bn1
Q67	866	0	Bn1
W22	984	0	Bn1
W23	531	0	Bn1

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