The occurrence of maternal white seedlings in ears from iojap x normal

From the cross of ij ij x + + (with Oh51a as male parent--see MNL 52:82), a large number of ear maps are being derived. Certain features of these maps are surprising. Maternal white seedlings occur on ears in non-Poisson distributions, suggesting clustering arising from clonally proliferated events, but in arrays that are not homogenous clonal groups (see MNL 54:28-30), and their grouping on ear maps is inconsistent with ear morphogenesis as derived by M. M. Johri (see note in this Newsletter), in which both of two embryo cells contributing to the ear are represented at the base. Maternal white seedlings are found in large arrays mostly in the distal portion of the ear. Taken with the fact that scattered green seedlings occur in mainly white areas, and vice versa, the implication is that location (or cell growth rate or attenuation) influences the occurrence of exceptional white seedlings more than sorting-out and clonal proliferation.

E. H. Coe

Please Note: Notes submitted to the Maize Genetics Cooperation Newsletter may be cited only with consent of the authors.

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