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. 1995 Aug;140(4):1379–1387. doi: 10.1093/genetics/140.4.1379

Environmental Programming of Heritable Epigenetic Changes in Paramutant R-Gene Expression Using Temperature and Light at a Specific Stage of Early Development in Maize Seedlings

B C Mikula 1
PMCID: PMC1206701  PMID: 7498777

Abstract

Different heritable expression-states were programmed into R alleles from R/R-lst heterozygotes under different temperature conditions applied during a developmental period in which flowering is induced. At maturity, R-allele expressions in test crosses of male gametes derived from R/R-lst seedlings raised 15 days in 32° and continuous light conditions differed significantly from those of sib seedlings raised for 15 days in 22° and continuous light conditions and shifted to six 12-hr light-dark cycles, days 16-21. This experiment provides the first evidence in higher organisms that environmental conditions, applied at a specific stage of development cause a heritable change in a specific allele expression. My earlier evidence required a statistical analysis for demonstrating heritable change; I present photographic evidence of this environmental effect on four R alleles.

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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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