Transposons maize

In maize, many phenotypic mutants have been associated with cloned genes by a combination of HPLC analysis of specific intermediate metabolite accumulation, RT-PCR and immunolocalization of candidate genes, and recombinant inbred mapping of candidate cDNAs. Psyl was cloned by transposon tagging and later shown to be functional in the color complementation system and to be the specific... 

Brutnell, T.P., Transposon tagging in maize, Funct. Integr. Genomics 2, 4, 2002. Brutnell, T.P. and Conrad, L.J., Transposon tagging nsing Activator (Ac) in maize, Meth. Mol. Biol. 236, 157, 2003. 

The maize transposon ac is widely used as a means of inactivating genes and placing a "tag" that can be used to map the gene and to permit it to be cloned and sequenced.598 638 Although initially of use only in maize the method has been extended to other plants,639 641 and genetically engineered transposons have allowed it to be utilized in animals.642... 

McLaughlin, M., and Walbot, V., 1987, Cloning of a mutable bz2 allele of maize by transposon tagging and differential hybridization, Genetics 117 771-776. 

Mutation schemes of this kind have been known in maize for many years, but the basic mechanism of action has only recently become understood. Most information is derived from bacteria and yeast, but examples are also well known in Drosophila, and there is evidence of transposons in mammals. The fraction of mutations that occur by this mechanism is unknown, but transposition probably accounts for the high mutability that is seen in various species from time to time. 

Eukaryotic DNA Transposons McCllntock s original discovery of mobile elements came from observation of certain spontaneous mutations in maize that affect production of any of the several enzymes required to make anthocyanln, a purple pigment in maize kernels. Mutant kernels are white, and wild-type kernels are purple. One class of these mutations is revertlble at high frequency, whereas a second class of mutations does not revert unless they occur in the presence of the first class of mutations. McClintock called the agent responsible for the first class of mutations the activator (Ac) element and those responsible for the second class dissociation (Ds) elements because they also tended to be associated with chromosome breaks. 

James DW Jr, Lim E, Keller J, Plooy I, Ralston E, Dooner HK. (1995) Directed tagging of the Arabidopsis fatty acid elongationl (FAEl) gene with the maize transposon activator. Plant Cell 7 309-319. 

We were able to molecularly clone the gll locus of maize due to the insertional mutagenesis of this locus by the Mul transposon (Hansen et al., 1996). The gll cDNA is predicted to code for a protein of 319 amino acids with an estimated molecular mass of 35.3 kDa and a theoretical isoelectric point of 9.38. The GLl protein is homologous to the N-terminal portions of the EPI23 protein of Kleinia odora, the CERl protein of Arabidopsis and the protein coded by the rice EST RICS2751A. These homologous proteins are predicted to be have 625 amino acids residues. 

Walbot, V (2000). Saturation mutagenesis using maize transposons. Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 3, 103-107. 

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