IV. MAIZE GENETICS COOPERATION STOCK CENTER

	Maize Genetics Cooperation • Stock Center USDA/ARS/MWA - Plant Physiology and Genetics Research Unit & University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign - Department of Crop Sciences
S-123 Turner Hall 1102 South Goodwin Avenue Urbana, IL 61801-4798	(217) 333-6631 [phone] (217) 333-6064 [fax] [email protected] [internet] http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/maize [URL]

2010 seed samples have been supplied in response to 273 requests, for 1997. Of these, a total of 65 requests were received from 19 foreign countries. Approximately three fourths of our requests were received by electronic mail or through our order form on the World-Wide Web.

We rearranged the stock list, giving trisomics and B-A Translocation stocks their own categories. We hope that this will help cooperators find stocks of interest.

Approximately 5 acres of nursery were grown this summer. Despite cool weather in May slowing germination in our first planting, growing conditions during the rest of the season were nearly optimal and with irrigation we obtained good increases of most stocks.

Special plantings were made of several categories of stocks:

1. Approximately 1.5 acres was devoted to the vast mutant collection of Gerry Neuffer with special attention also given to the collection of mutants that we have obtained from Donald Robertson.

2. Plantings were also made from donated stocks from the collections of James Birchler (marked B-A translocation stocks), Ed Coe (various genetic stocks), Susan Gabay-Laughnan (male-sterile cytoplasms and restorers), Jerry Kermicle (R1 alleles), Bryan Kindiger (apomictic maize/Tripsacum hybrids - being grown in a winter greenhouse), Michael McMullen (Brink pericarp color collection), Donald Miles (high chlorophyll fluorescence mutants), Gerry Neuffer (EMS-induced mutants), and others. We expect to receive additional accessions of stocks from maize geneticists within the upcoming year.

3. We also made a special planting of characterized unplaced mutants to map to chromosome arm using B-A translocations. We were able to place the mutants piebald4, virescent13, viviparous10, and viviparous12 with a high degree of certainty, and made tentative placements of luteus3, luteus4, and orobanche2 (see MNL article on our TB mapping results). We plan to continue this mapping project next summer.

4. Approximately 1 acre each year is devoted to the propagation of the large collection of A-A translocation stocks. In this collection is a series of waxy1-linked translocations that are used for mapping unplaced mutants. Over the years, pedigree and classification problems arose during the propagation of these stocks. We were able to sort through the problem ones, and we can now supply good sources proven by linkage tests to include the correct translocated chromosomes. Additional translocation stocks will be tested as time allows.

Since the USDA discontinued its winter nursery program at Isabela, Puerto Rico, we grew last year's winter nursery at the Illinois Crop Improvement Association's facilities in Juana D�az, Puerto Rico. The crop performed well there, probably better than at Isabela, and we received excellent increases. We plan to continue growing our winter nurseries at this location.

We sent backups of the stocks in our main collection to the National Seed Storage Laboratory (NSSL). With the help of Julie Fleming, this information was incorporated into GRIN.

We would like to make a special plea for cooperators to donate mutants that they have worked on, to the Stock Center in a timely manner. What often happens is that people publish on these mutants, and then forget about them. Seeds sit around at room temperature and lose viability, or get eaten by insects and mice, or even get discarded. These mutants are lost forever, and the research that was done on them can never be replicated or followed up. We recently received the only known existing seeds of the mutant ageotropic1 (agt1). The seeds did not grow when they were field planted, and we had to make heroic efforts to germinate them under pampered conditions and transplant them to the field. Fortunately, with only about five percent germination even under these conditions, we were able to recover the mutant. However, we could have just as easily lost it. Please, as soon as you have published on your mutant, send seeds to the Stock Center. Do this now, before you forget.

Return to the MNL 72 On-Line Index
Return to the Maize Newsletter Index
Return to the MaizeGDB Homepage