U.S.-Federal Republic of Germany Cooperative Research on Genetics of Mobile Elements in Maize

该奖项支持爱荷华州立大学的Peter Peterson博士对位于法兰克福科隆的Max-Planck植物育种研究所进行的三次短期研究访问，以通过与Heinz Saedler博士和其他人的合作来加强他的国内研究。他们共同工作的目的是为了更好地了解玉米转座和基因表达的调控。他们的研究计划包括：1)进一步研究新出现的不稳定等位基因与目前已知的可变系统的关系；2)通过分离控制EN元件的几个特定功能的突变体来分析EN系统；3)进行几个座位上的可变等位基因的遗传分析，以便分离出突变的衍生品，用于更多的分子研究；4)分析玉米群体中可变元素的分布；5)在克隆的基因座上捕获主要元素，以用于标记基因。对于大部分这项工作来说，协调遗传(爱荷华州)和分子(德国)的方法是必要的。彼得森博士拥有操纵遗传物质的所有设施、遗传信息和技术。赛德勒博士的团队拥有发达的分子生物学技术，并有人员进行分子水平分析。在过去的几年里，玉米可移动元素的研究取得了相当大的进展，分离和克隆了几个元素，随后克隆了一些基因。这一进展归功于分子生物学家和遗传学家的共同努力，包括这些合作者。早期的工作已经阐明了元素的一般结构、它们的组成部分以及它们的遗传效应。这项工作产生了解释这些元素在诱导基因组和单个基因变化中所起作用的模型的发展。拟议中的合作将进一步推进这项工作，最终导致标记对农业重要的可取基因的实验。

This award supports three short term research visits by Dr. Peter Peterson of Iowa State University to the Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, FRG, to enhance his domestic research by collaboration with Dr. Heinz Saedler and others. The objective of their joint work is to gain a better understanding of the regulation of transposition and gene expression in maize. Their research plans include efforts to 1) investigate further the relationship of newly arisen unstable alleles to currently known mutable systems; 2) analyze the En system by isolating mutants controlling the several specific functions of the En element; 3) pursue the genetic analysis of mutable alleles at several loci in order to isolate mutant derivatives for additional molecular studies; 4) analyze populations of maize for the distribution of mutable elements; and 5) trap master elements at cloned loci for their use in tagging genes. A coordinated genetic (Iowa) and molecular (Germany) approach is necessary for most of this work. Dr. Peterson has all the facilities and genetic information and techniques to manipulate the genetic material. Dr. Saedler's group has the molecular biology technology well developed and has personnel to carry out the molecular level analyses. Studies of mobile elements in maize have made considerable progress in the past few years, with the isolation and cloning of several elements and the subsequent cloning of a number of genes. This progress is attributable to the combined efforts of molecular biologists and geneticists, including these collaborators. Early work has elucidated the general structure of the elements, their component parts, and their genetic effects. This work has generated the development of models to explain the role of these elements in inducing changes in the genome as well as in individual genes. The proposed collaboration will carry this work further, leading eventually to experiments on tagging desirable genes that are important to agriculture.