Paramutation at the R Locus in Maize1
This extract was created in the absence of an abstract.
Excerpt
Central to Mendelian theory is the principle that in reduplication of the genetic substance each element exclusively and uniquely determines the formation of a precisely equivalent element. It is inferred that the new material is molded in the pattern of the old on a point-by-point basis. Different germinal elements do not react with each other in the replication process, nor does the environment affect the nature of the product. Mutation has constituted the only established exception to this law. Non-conformity in this case, however, is limited to the mutation event itself; the rule applies in turn to the mutant factors, as of their respective kinds.
A striking exception to the above principle recently has been established in maize (Brink, 1956). The Rr gene, conditioning self-colored aleurone and anthocyanin plant color, which is stable in homozygous condition, invariably is changed to a weakly pigmenting form in the progeny of heterozygotes carrying...
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↵1 Paper No. 691 from the Department of Genetics, College of Agriculture, University of Wisconsin.
