Skip to main content
NCBI home page
Genetics logoLink to Genetics
. 1996 May;143(1):489–503. doi: 10.1093/genetics/143.1.489

Mosaic Analysis of the Liguleless3 Mutant Phenotype in Maize by Coordinate Suppression of Mutator-Insertion Alleles

J E Fowler 1, G J Muehlbauer 1, M Freeling 1
PMCID: PMC1207280  PMID: 8722798

Abstract

Liguleless3-O (Lg3-O) transforms the leaf blade, auricle and ligule into sheath around the midrib region. We conducted a genetic mosaic analysis of the Lg3 phenotype to determine the site of Lg3 gene action. Combining the Mutator (Mu) suppressible Lg3-Or211 and a1-mum2 alleles in a Mu-active background generated a stock wherein somatic loss of Mu activity resulted in anthocyanin-marked clonal sectors expressing Lg3 in the leaf. Lg3-Or211 plants appear wild type in a Mu-active line, but Mu-inactive plants express a severe Lg3 phenotype. We observed four sector classes: wild type, sheath-like with ligule displacement, sheath-like with ectopic ligule, and auricle-like. The mutation does not cause transformation to a specific cell or regional identity. Lg3-Or211 activity in the mesophyll alters wild-type epidermal cell fates; activity in epidermis seems funtionless. Lg3 mutant activity has a nonautonomous, cell-layer-specific function in the transverse dimension. In the lateral dimension, sectors of Lg3 mutant phenotype can exhibit either cell-autonomous or nonautonomous effects. Our work demonstrates that mosaic analysis by coordinate suppression of Mu-induced alleles is useful for analyzing the cell autonomy of genetically defined functions.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (15.1 MB).

Selected References

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

  1. Becraft P. W., Bongard-Pierce D. K., Sylvester A. W., Poethig R. S., Freeling M. The liguleless-1 gene acts tissue specifically in maize leaf development. Dev Biol. 1990 Sep;141(1):220–232. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(90)90117-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Becraft P. W., Freeling M. Genetic analysis of Rough sheath1 developmental mutants of maize. Genetics. 1994 Jan;136(1):295–311. doi: 10.1093/genetics/136.1.295. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Becraft P. W., Freeling M. Sectors of liguleless-1 tissue interrupt an inductive signal during maize leaf development. Plant Cell. 1991 Aug;3(8):801–807. doi: 10.1105/tpc.3.8.801. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bennetzen J. L., Swanson J., Taylor W. C., Freeling M. DNA insertion in the first intron of maize Adh1 affects message levels: cloning of progenitor and mutant Adh1 alleles. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1984 Jul;81(13):4125–4128. doi: 10.1073/pnas.81.13.4125. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Bensen R. J., Johal G. S., Crane V. C., Tossberg J. T., Schnable P. S., Meeley R. B., Briggs S. P. Cloning and characterization of the maize An1 gene. Plant Cell. 1995 Jan;7(1):75–84. doi: 10.1105/tpc.7.1.75. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Chomet P., Lisch D., Hardeman K. J., Chandler V. L., Freeling M. Identification of a regulatory transposon that controls the Mutator transposable element system in maize. Genetics. 1991 Sep;129(1):261–270. doi: 10.1093/genetics/129.1.261. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Dudley M., Poethig R. S. The heterochronic Teopod1 and Teopod2 mutations of maize are expressed non-cell-autonomously. Genetics. 1993 Feb;133(2):389–399. doi: 10.1093/genetics/133.2.389. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Freeling M. A conceptual framework for maize leaf development. Dev Biol. 1992 Sep;153(1):44–58. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(92)90090-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Harberd N. P., Freeling M. Genetics of dominant gibberellin-insensitive dwarfism in maize. Genetics. 1989 Apr;121(4):827–838. doi: 10.1093/genetics/121.4.827. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Hershberger R. J., Warren C. A., Walbot V. Mutator activity in maize correlates with the presence and expression of the Mu transposable element Mu9. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1991 Nov 15;88(22):10198–10202. doi: 10.1073/pnas.88.22.10198. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Lisch D., Chomet P., Freeling M. Genetic characterization of the Mutator system in maize: behavior and regulation of Mu transposons in a minimal line. Genetics. 1995 Apr;139(4):1777–1796. doi: 10.1093/genetics/139.4.1777. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Lowe B., Mathern J., Hake S. Active Mutator elements suppress the knotted phenotype and increase recombination at the Kn1-O tandem duplication. Genetics. 1992 Nov;132(3):813–822. doi: 10.1093/genetics/132.3.813. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Martienssen R. A., Barkan A., Freeling M., Taylor W. C. Molecular cloning of a maize gene involved in photosynthetic membrane organization that is regulated by Robertson's Mutator. EMBO J. 1989 Jun;8(6):1633–1639. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1989.tb03553.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Martienssen R., Barkan A., Taylor W. C., Freeling M. Somatically heritable switches in the DNA modification of Mu transposable elements monitored with a suppressible mutant in maize. Genes Dev. 1990 Mar;4(3):331–343. doi: 10.1101/gad.4.3.331. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Martienssen R., Baron A. Coordinate suppression of mutations caused by Robertson's mutator transposons in maize. Genetics. 1994 Mar;136(3):1157–1170. doi: 10.1093/genetics/136.3.1157. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Qin M. M., Robertson D. S., Ellingboe A. H. Cloning of the Mutator transposable element MuA2, a putative regulator of somatic mutability of the a1-Mum2 allele in maize. Genetics. 1991 Nov;129(3):845–854. doi: 10.1093/genetics/129.3.845. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Schwarz-Sommer Z., Gierl A., Cuypers H., Peterson P. A., Saedler H. Plant transposable elements generate the DNA sequence diversity needed in evolution. EMBO J. 1985 Mar;4(3):591–597. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03671.x. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Sinha N., Hake S. Mutant characters of knotted maize leaves are determined in the innermost tissue layers. Dev Biol. 1990 Sep;141(1):203–210. doi: 10.1016/0012-1606(90)90115-y. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Sundaresan V., Freeling M. An extrachromosomal form of the Mu transposons of maize. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1987 Jul;84(14):4924–4928. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.14.4924. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Sylvester A. W., Cande W. Z., Freeling M. Division and differentiation during normal and liguleless-1 maize leaf development. Development. 1990 Nov;110(3):985–1000. doi: 10.1242/dev.110.3.985. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Szymkowiak E. J., Sussex I. M. The internal meristem layer (L3) determines floral meristem size and carpel number in tomato periclinal chimeras. Plant Cell. 1992 Sep;4(9):1089–1100. doi: 10.1105/tpc.4.9.1089. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Genetics are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES