As a followup to a study of the inheritance of oleic and linoleic acids in maize oil (Crop Sci. 15:44-46, 1975) inbreds GE82 and X-187 were crossed to a series of waxy-marked chromosome 9 reciprocal translocations to determine chromosomal location of genes controlling these two fatty acids. The results indicated the existence of genes controlling germ oil composition for oleic and linoleic acids on the long arm of chromosome 5 of inbred GE82. The same gene(s) could be responsible for controlling both fatty acids. For inbred X-187, the data indicated the location of a gene controlling linoleic acid on the long arm of chromosome 4. Although not verified by F2 data, the results also indicated the location of gene(s) controlling linoleic acid on the short arm of chromosome 1 of both inbreds. Oleic and linoleic acids generally have a very high negative correlation with each other in corn oil, and the gene(s) show dependent segregation of the two fatty acids. However, the strong association between oleic and linoleic acids was not evident in these inbreds, which may have been due to differences in palmitic acid composition of the parental lines.

M. D. Jellum and N. W. Widstrom

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