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. 1985 Mar;4(3):591–597. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03671.x

Plant transposable elements generate the DNA sequence diversity needed in evolution

Zsuzsanna Schwarz-Sommer 1, Alfons Gierl 1, Heinrich Cuypers 1, Peter A Peterson 1, Heinz Saedler 1
PMCID: PMC554230  PMID: 15926219

Abstract

Two germinal and 16 somatic reversion events induced by the Enhancer (En) transposable element system at the wx-8::Spm-I8 allele of Zea mays were cloned and studied by sequence analysis. Excision of the Spm-I8 receptor element from the wx gene results in various mutant DNA sequences. This leads to altered gene products, some of which are still capable of restoring the wild-type phenotype. Possible `footprint' sequences that may have arisen by the excision of transposable elements were observed when intron sequences of the wild-type (wx+) and the mutant (wx-m8) alleles of the wx gene were compared. The sequence divergence generated by visitation of a locus by plant transposable elements is discussed with respect to the molecular evolution of new gene functions.

Keywords: Enhancer (En), wx-m8, Zea mays, reversion, DNA sequence

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Selected References

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