At 4:12 PM +0000 3/9/02, Ed Coe wrote:
>Dear Prof. Coe,
>Could you please send me a copy of your article 'Clonal analysis of
>corn plant development. I. The development of the tassel and the ear
>shoot' published in Dev Biol. 1983 May; 97(1):154-72. I hope your
>article will help me to answer some questions arisen under
>determination of the timing of the rbg reversion from the o2 allele.
>(The data on ear morphology available at the MNL web site (IMP) was
>very useful for me.) During this analysis I determined the
>appurtenance of revertant kernels to a particular spikelet by marking
>attachment places of revertant kernels and subsequently cutting off
>spikelet ear tissue remnants. Such a quite simple determination
>appeared to be more difficult on the ears with 'irregular' rows. One
>of the arising questions is whether the additional spikelets (which
>provoke row irregularity) always develop as a PAIR of spikelet or
>not. Do you have any information on this issue?
> Thank you in advance. Sincerely yours,
> Vladimir V. Koterniak
> Senior Research Scientist
>Maize and Sorghum Research Institute, Pascani, reg. Criuleni 4834,
>Republic of Moldova
>E-mail: koterniak at hotmail.com
Dear Dr. Koterniak,
I have examined flower and spikelet development on maize ears
fairly extensively. In most cases irregular rowing is the result of
the development of the lower floret in each spikelet that is normally
suppressed (unlike the tassel where both normally develop). I have
occasionally observed unpaired spikelets. Flowers from them would
also result in irregular rowing, but they are, at least in the
material I look at, very uncommon.
Erin Irish
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa