The birth of maize molecular genetics

Abstract

Long before recombinant DNA technology was invented, maize genetics was a vibrant and exciting science dominated by controlling elements, cytogenet-ics, gene mapping and heterosis. Genes were understood as mutationally-defined units of function that could be placed on chromosomes. Incorporation of the concept of DNA as genetic material and the central dogma of genetics (DNA RNA ⇒ protein) into the thinking of maize geneticists occurred rapidly. But, the only way to propagate maize DNA was to plant a seed. In this chapter, we provide a personal account of how maize molecular genetics came into existence. We focus on some of the original, urgent questions of maize genetics that required the tools of molecular biology for satisfying explanations. No pretense is implied concerning the completeness of the narrative below, and we emphasize that this is a personal account.