SUMMARYUnstable alleles, broken chromosomes and stable mutants have arisen in maize out of infected plants of Barley Striped Mosaic Virus and other viruses. Surprisingly, these same events have appeared out of progenies of these infected plants that themselves do not show any infection. These mutants showing instability have resulted from insertions that are not necessarily related. Two of these insertions (BS1 and TZ86) that have been analysed molecularly have the general characteristics of maize insertions with terminal inverted repeats and host duplication at the terminus of the transposon. In other experiments three of the unstable alleles at the a locus in maize (A locus, chromosome 3, short arm; one of genes for anthocyanin control) that arose in derivative lines of the initially treated plants are responsive to a transposable element, the Uq element. It was determined that the Uq element was not present in this initially treated plant but was present in the untreated female plant. It is proposed that the initial treatment induced events that in turn led to the mobilization of elements and that these events continue to occur in later generations. It seems that genomic events once initiated such as mobility of elements cannot be terminated despite a discontinuation of the treatment (virus) and, like a Frankenstein monster, is not responsive to its maker.
Virus-induced mutations in maize: on the nature of stress-induction of unstable loci
