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. 1987 Oct;117(2):297–307. doi: 10.1093/genetics/117.2.297

Isolation and Characterization of a 1.7-Kb Transposable Element from a Mutator Line of Maize

Loverine P Taylor 1, Virginia Walbot 1
PMCID: PMC1203205  PMID: 2444493

Abstract

We have cloned and sequenced a 1.7-kb Mu element from a Mutator line of maize and compared its structure to Mu1, a 1.4-kb element. With the exception of a 385-bp block of DNA present in the 1.7-kb element, these transposable elements are structurally similar, sharing terminally inverted and internal direct repeated sequences. Derivation of 1.4-kb elements from the 1.7-kb class via deletion of internal sequence is suggested by the finding that a portion of the extra DNA in Mu1.7 is part of a truncated direct repeat sequence in the 1.4-kb element. An abundant poly(A)+ RNA homologous to a portion of this extra DNA is present in several tissues of both Mutator and non-Mutator lines. Analysis of transcripts from an unstable mutant bronze1 (bz) allele containing a Mu1.7 element inserted in an exon of the gene detects three species of poly(A)+ RNA that hybridize to a Bz1 (Bronze) gene probe: the largest contains the entire Mu1.7 element in the Bz1 gene transcript; another appears to be a spliced, chimeric transcript; the smallest is normal size Bz1 mRNA. The latter is most likely encoded by the normal-size alleles detected by Southern analysis of tissue expressing purple pigment, suggesting that normal gene function is restored by excision of the Mu1.7 element.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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