PAG-II Plant Genome II Conference

Town & Country Conference Center, San Diego, CA, January, 1994.


PG-II: GENETIC CONTROL OF RECOMBINATION RATES IN MAIZE. I. VARIABILITY AMONG LATIN AMERICAN RACES AND TEOSINTE

GENETIC CONTROL OF RECOMBINATION RATES IN MAIZE. I. VARIABILITY AMONG LATIN AMERICAN RACES AND TEOSINTE.

Claire G. Williams, Charles W. Stuber, William F. Thompson & Major M. Goodman, Departments of Genetics, USDA-ARS, Botany & Crop Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh North Carolina 27695.


Use of saturated genetic maps and marker-assisted selection has renewed interest in identifying modifier genes to break up blocks of donor segments which do not readily recombine. Molecular markers are used to introgress desirable chromosomal segments from the donor into the recipient while simultaneously selecting against undesirable segments of the donor genome. Ultimately, our goal is to develop maize lines with enhanced or restricted rates of recombination.

The purpose of this first study was to compare rates of recombination across races of maize and teosinte. Testcrosses were constructed using multiple marker stocks which are homozygous for low-frequency isozyme allelic variants Data are presented for Chromosome I stocks testcrossed to seven Latin American maize races, Zea diploperennis and one domestic maize inbred, B73. There is wide variability in recombination fractions among exotic races of maize on chromosome I Segregation distortion patterns also differ widely Studies are in progress to i) experimentally test for genetic control of recombination using these chromosomal testcross stocks, and maize meiotic mutants, ii) develop probes for mapping these genes using subtractive hybridization methods


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