Transposon Mutagenesis and Analysis of Mutants in UniformMu Maize (Zea mays)

A wealth of maize mutants is now available with known sites of transposon insertions in over 45% of maize genes. Materials can be obtained free of charge from the UniformMu public resource through MaizeGDB.org or directly from the Maize Genetics COOP Stock Center. Specific mutants can be sought online based on gene-sequences of interest. A key feature of the UniformMu resource is the uniformity of wild-type controls, which facilitates characterization of mutant phenotypes. Methods developed for construction (transposon mutagenesis), analysis and utilization of the resource are described here. These include the high-throughput Mu-seq genotyping protocol that enables both forward and reverse approaches for linking genotypes-to-phenotypes. © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.