Stable and unstable mutations in aberrant ratio stocks of maize

Aberrant Ratio (AR) stocks of maize were tested for transposition activity. Lines exhibiting AR and homozygous for the dominant alleles at the Sh Bz and Wx loci in the short arm of chromosome 9 were crossed as males to a sh bz wx tester. Among a population of 346,201 kernels, eight mutations of sh and two of bz were recovered. Eight of the ten mutations survived and none was as vigorous as its normal sibs. At least five of the sh mutants appear to be unstable in F₂ and subsequent generations. An unexpected observation was the high incidence of somatic loss of chromosome 9 markers (Sh Bz and Wx), indicating chromosome breakage or nondisjunction. Southern blot hybridization analysis of the sh alterations indicate that all but one mutant are associated with structural DNA rearrangements at the shrunken locus. Possible mechanisms by which these alterations arose are discussed.