Maize Genetics Cooperation Newsletter vol 86 2012

The photosynthetic mutant ppr10 is allelic to the luteus seedling mutant l15.

--Stinard, PS

--Maize Genetics Cooperation Stock Center

--USDA/ARS, Urbana, IL

The photosynthetic mutant ppr10 (pentatricopeptide repeat10) conditions a luteus seedling phenotype, and the locus is located on the long arm of chromosome 6 (Pfalz, J; Bayraktar, OA; Barkan, A. 2009. EMBO J. 28:2042-2052). Other luteus seedling mutant loci (l10, l12, and l15) also map to the long arm of chromosome 6, but tests of allelism of ppr10 with these loci have not been previously reported. The Maize Genome Database placement of l15 seemed to be closest to the map position of ppr10, so we conducted a direct test of allelism of ppr10 with l15. Plants heterozygous for ppr10 in coupling with y1 were crossed with plants heterozygous for l15 in coupling with y1, and yellow and white kernels from the F1 ears were separated and planted in the sand bench. Seedlings grown from the yellow kernels were predominantly green, with a few luteus seedling crossovers, and seedlings grown from the white kernels were predominantly luteus, with a few green seedling crossovers. We conclude that ppr10 is allelic to l15, and suggest that the locus name l15 be retained due to its precedence in the literature (Robertson, DS. 1981. MNL 55:115). A l15 stock was sent to the Barkan lab for analysis; Western blot analysis of l15 seedlings with antibodies raised against PPR10 protein showed absence of PPR10 protein (Barkan lab, personal communication), providing further confirmation of ppr10/l15 allelism.

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