Project Documentation & Protocols: Maize Gene Discovery Project: RescueMu Library Plates: Phenotypes

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Is a visible mutation likely to be caused by RescueMu? In grids A - L multi-copy standard Mutator lines were used. Consequently most mutations are caused by other Mu elements. In fact, the seedling "forward mutation" frequency is 10 - 28% in grids B - E, indicative of very high Mutator activity. If you are interested in adult plant screening of such high Mutator lines, you should join us in summer 2001 for a phenotype screen of ~4000 families at the Maize Coop. We plan to repeat the summer adult screens in 2002 and 2003. Look for announcements each spring announcing the adult screening.

If you identify a RescueMu plasmid insertion in both a row and column library it will be interesting to determine if there is a phenotype associated with plants that are homozygous or heterozygous for this mutation. As with all standard Mu tagging experiments, selecting lines that lose Mutator activity so that you can stabilize the elements and begin to analyze the impact of your mutation are important.

Grids with MiniMu and MidiMu: These new elements are propagated in lines with several MuDR elements but no or few other Mu elements. We expect that the majority of visible mutations will be caused by the transgene elements. The low copy number of Mu elements will lower the mutation frequency substantially.

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