d2 allelic to d3?
--Philip Stinard

Maize COOP notes from the 1970's indicate that the COOP's accessions of d2 (chromosome 3) and d3 (chromosome 9) were found to be allelic. Both stocks trace back to the first season that maize genetic stocks were grown for the COOP in Cornell in 1935 and therefore the original accessions were most likely allelic as well. We suspect that the problem is with the d2 stock, because both stocks show tight coupling of the dwarf to wx1 on chromosome 9, which is what one would expect of d3. d2 should show linkage to chromosome 3 markers. Attempts have been made to obtain independent sources of d2 (most recently an accession obtained from Nicholas Harberd), but so far they have proven to be allelic to d3 as well. It is possible that the original placement of d2 to chromosome 3 was erroneous and that the original d2 mutant was allelic to d3 all along. The other possibility is that the stocks were confused before they were sent to the COOP for propagation. We are in the process of checking other sources of d2 for allelism with d3. If anyone has additional sources of d2 that do not trace back to the Maize COOP, we would appreciate receiving them and will test them for allelism as well. 

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