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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Urbana, Illinois » Soybean/maize Germplasm, Pathology, and Genetics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #233585
Title: The Maize enr System of r1 Haplotype–Specific Aleurone Color Enhancement Factors

Author
item Stinard, Philip
item KERMICLE, JERRY - UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN
item Sachs, Martin

Submitted to: Journal of Heredity
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/30/2008
Publication Date: 3/1/2009
Citation: Stinard, P.S., Kermicle, J.L., Sachs, M.M. 2009. The Maize enr System of r1 Haplotype–Specific Aleurone Color Enhancement Factors. Journal of Heredity. 100(2):217-228.

Interpretive Summary: 1) Rationale: One important aim of basic research in crop plants is to gain greater insight as to how genes function and interact. The goal of this study was to characterize factors affecting kernel color in maize. 2) Accomplishments: The results show that some genetic factors can enhance certain variations of a regulatory gene known as ‘r1’. This in turn enhances kernel color.3) Significance: The understanding of this interaction between genes will give us a greater understanding of gene regulation in crop plants. This in turn can lead to a deeper understanding of methods to improve crop plants.

Technical Abstract: We describe a family of three dominant r1 haplotype-specific enhancers of aleurone color in Zea mays. Stable alleles of the three enhancement of r1 loci (enr1, enr2 and enr3) intensify aleurone color conferred by certain pale and near-colorless r1 haplotypes. In addition, unstable alleles of enr1 act on the same set of r1 haplotypes, producing spotted kernels. Components of this instability cross react with the Fcu system of instability. Two of the enr loci are linked with one another but none of the three are linked with r1. The r1 haplotypes affected by enr alleles overlap those affected by the inr family of r1 haplotype-specific inhibitors of aleurone color, suggesting a possible interaction.