Interaction of Endosperm Size Factors in Maize

Abstract

ABSTRACT Crosses involving certain B-A translocations produce a reduced size of endosperm when those regions of the A chromosomes are missing in the sperm that fertilizes the polar nuclei. Previous studies involving the long arm of chromosome 10 showed that additional copies of this segment introduced through the maternal side could not rescue the reduced size phenotype conditioned by the corresponding deficiency in the paternal gamete. In this paper, experiments are described showing that other segments introduced maternally produce an even smaller kernel when fertilized by a sperm missing the same A chromosome segment or other ones that carry factors affecting endosperm size.—The example analyzed in detail involves reciprocal crosses between TB-4Sa and TB-10L19. Extra doses of 4S enhance the small kernel effect normally produced by TB-10L19. The additional copies of 4S have no effect on kernel mass when the 10L segment is present in the paternal contribution to the endosperm. The maternal enhancement by 4S is also effective with crosses by TB-1La but not by TB-1Sb. A survey of inter se crosses of B-A translocations shows that, when the maternal enhancement occurs, it is confined to those regions that themselves give a small kernel effect when used as a male. This correlation is strengthened by the observations that TB-10L19 enhances the small kernel effect of TB-1Sb, but TB-10L32 will not. Since these two B-10L translocations span the best localized small kernel effect region, this result supports the correlation of maternal enhancement regions with the paternal small kernel effect ones.—Because the enhancement can be attributed to a dosage effect and because the enhancement regions are coincident with the small kernel segments, it is postulated that this interacting system is analogous to aneuploid effects in diploid tissues but exhibits unique properties because of the evolutionary history and triploid condition of the endosperm.