TUNICATE1 FUNCTION IN MAIZE FLORAL DEVELOPMENT
Pod corn was once thought to be the ancestral form of corn, as glumes on the ear fully enclose the kernels, resembling primitive grasses. On pages 2733–2744, Han et al. show that the dose-sensitive Tunicate1 (Tu1) allele responsible for the phenotype is caused by a chromosomal rearrangement that results in misexpression of a MADS box gene in the inflorescence. The cover displays the tassel of homozygous Tu1 that is feminized with emerging silks.