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Ragged leaf In the summer of 1997, a family of inbred maize W22 segregated for plants with abnormal leaves.  These plants tended to be be shorter than their normal siblings and were much more subject to smut (see picture to the right).  This apparent spontaneous mutation was called ragged (rg*) in reference to its leaf phenotype (see pictures below). The leaf phenotype is apparently due to the splitting of marginal leaf blade tissue from the more central leaf blade.  This may be due to uneven growth, which would explain the corrugating that commonly accompanies the leaf splitting.  Not all leaves on the affected plants appear to be subject to leaf splitting.  The leaves immediately above and below the ear are apparently most subject to this effect.  The susceptibility to smut seems not to be regional. In subsequent generations the phenotype was found to be due to a single recessive factor.  In 2001, the factor was found to be on the long arm of chromosome 5 (5L) using B-A reciprocal translocations.  Data from 2005 showing a  more precise location of this gene using a classical phenotypic marker (pr1) and a simple sequence repeat (SSR) molecular marker (umc1221) is shown below.

Class	Gametic genotype	Fam 1	Fam 2	Total		umc1221
Parental	umc1221+  Pr  Rg*	70	88	158	315
	umc1221-   pr  rg*	77	80	157
Interval I	umc1221+  pr  rg*	7	7	14	25
	umc1221-   Pr  Rg*	3	8	11
Interval II	umc1221+  Pr  rg*	5	2	7	21
	umc1221-   pr  Rg*	8	6	14
Double crossover	umc1221+  pr  Rg*	3	0	3	4
	umc1221-   Pr  rg*	0	1	1
Totals:		173	192	365

03/04/07