DEVELOPMENTAL GENETICS OF MUTANTS THAT SPECIFY KNOTTED LEAVES IN MAIZE

Michael Freeling ¹ and Sarah Hake ¹

¹ Department of Genetics, University of California Berkeley, California 94720

Of seven dominant knotted-leaf mutants tested, six mapped at or near Kn1 on the long arm of chromosome 1, and one was not linked to Kn1. Comparisons of phenotypes among these mutants allowed us to focus on a systematic abnormality: the parenchyma cells associated with lateral veins do not fully differentiate into bundle sheath, mesophyll or upper sclerenchyma. The more dramatic expression of Kn1 mutants—knots, ligule alterations and twisting—is sporadic and dependent on the time when the mutant acts in leaf primordium development. Using lw to mark leaf sectors that lose Kn1 following X-irradiation, we show that the knotted-leaf phenotype encoded by chromosome 1L is autonomous. Analysis of sectors lacking a particular Kn1 gene ( Kn1-N2) suggests that Kn1 itself, rather than a linked modifier gene, is autonomous in the leaf primordium. Aneuploid studies using various translocations involving 1L and marked by Adh1 allozymes are compared. The Kn1 mutant appears to encode a "new" function or a considerable overproduction of an extant product in the leaf. Kn1/- 1L hypoploids either express knotted poorly or not at all; transvection is ruled out, but the cause for this modification of Kn1 expression is not yet known.—Our working hypothesis is that Kn1 mutants permit the expression of a product that is usually not produced in leaf primordial cells. We suggest that this product interferes with the early cell-type commitments of cells near lateral veins. Thus, relatively uncommitted cells are present in more mature blades, where they may divide unexpectedly into knots or may induce bits of ligule.

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