Inheritance of a striped-leaf mutant is associated with the cytoplasmic genome in maize

A striped-leaf mutant has been identified in a Taiwanese maize line, Tainan White. The striped area is pale green at the seedling stage, and turns yellow and white at maturity, extending from the leaf blade to the sheath and the internode below the sheath. The mutant does not breed true and following self-pollination, produces three different types of progeny: green, striped and completely affected. The green type permanently loses the mutant character, while the completely affected type is lethal, without any green tissue. Only the striped type transmits the mutant phenotype to progeny, and it has a clonal distribution on the ear. Its phenotype is inherited maternally and its expression is unaffected by the paternal genotype. It cannot be inherited through the paternal parent. This pattern of inheritance, which persists after three cycles of backcrossing with the affected types as the recurrent pistillate parent, suggests that the responsible gene is located in the cytoplamic genome.