THE PLANT CELL, Vol 2, Issue 9 867-876, Copyright © 1990 by American Society of Plant Biologists
Cloning of the y1 Locus of Maize, a Gene Involved in the Biosynthesis of Carotenoids
B. Buckner, T. L. Kelson and D. S. Robertson
Department of Genetics, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011
The y1 gene is one of the genes responsible for the production of
[beta]-carotene in the endosperm and leaves of maize. We have cloned a
Robertson's Mutator-tagged allele of the y1 gene (y1-mum) by using a Mu3
element as a hybridization probe. We substantiate that the cloned sequence
is a portion of the y1 gene by molecular analyses of a revertant of a
putative Mutator-induced y1 allele and the incidence of insertions within
the cloned y1 sequence from several independently derived Mutator-induced
y1 mutant stocks. The y1-mum sequence was used to isolate the standard Y1
allele, which conditions the presence of [beta]-carotene in the endosperm
of the maize kernel.
