Selection in the M1 from a cross of normal ears by pollen treated with EMS (ethyl methanesulfonate) has yielded a total of 45 dominant mutants. The frequency of these mutants is comparable to the 2 x 10-3 reported elsewhere (Neuffer, M. G., International Maize Symposium: Genetics and Breeding, D. B. Walden (ed.), 1977); and although all the M1 ears in these experiments have not been tested, the frequency of recessive mutants seems to be within range of the 412 x 10-3 also reported.
The collection includes a wide array of phenotypes, some expressed in the kernel and others in the seedling or in the mature plant. The most frequent type is the disease lesion mimic (Neuffer, M. G., and O. H. Calvert, J. Heredity 66:265, 1975), of which there are eleven separate cases. Some of these may be duplicates, but preliminary data indicate at least four separate loci. Other interesting types include dominant dwarf (6) and yellow-green (3) plants, striped virescent seedlings (3), mosaic aleurone (2) and etched endosperm (2) mutants, a yellow-streaked plant, a thin-tassel mutant, a rolled leaf mutant (like Ce, reported by Mouli, MNL 50:5) and a defective morphology mutant with split leaves and a distorted growth pattern.
Eleven of these mutants have been located to chromosome, most of them by the waxy translocation method:
Three-point linkage data that place Lesion-1 (on chromosome 2) btween gl and fl are presented in Table 1.
M. G. Neuffer and K. A. Sheridan
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