Use of Maize (Zea mays L.) Mutator Transposon-Induced Mutants of the BonnMu Resource for Forward and Reverse Genetics Studies

Yan Naing Win; Martin Pöschel; Tyll Stöcker; Xuelian Du; Alina Klaus; Ben Wilhelm Braun; Linnéa Lukas; Alexa Brox; Heiko Schoof; Frank Hochholdinger; Caroline Marcon

doi:10.1101/pdb.prot108587

Use of Maize (Zea mays L.) Mutator Transposon-Induced Mutants of the BonnMu Resource for Forward and Reverse Genetics Studies

Cold Spring Harb Protoc. 2024 Sep 9. doi: 10.1101/pdb.prot108587. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yan Naing Win^{1

2}, Martin Pöschel^{1

2}, Tyll Stöcker³, Xuelian Du^{1

2}, Alina Klaus¹, Ben Wilhelm Braun^{1

2}, Linnéa Lukas^{1

2}, Alexa Brox^{1

2}, Heiko Schoof³, Frank Hochholdinger¹, Caroline Marcon^{4

2}

Affiliations

¹ Crop Functional Genomics, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES), University of Bonn, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
² BonnMu: Reverse Genetic Resources, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES), University of Bonn, 53113 Bonn, Germany.
³ Crop Bioinformatics, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES), University of Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany.
⁴ Crop Functional Genomics, Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES), University of Bonn, 53113 Bonn, Germany [email protected].

PMID: 39251334
DOI: 10.1101/pdb.prot108587

Abstract

The BonnMu resource represents a tagged collection of maize (Zea mays L.) Mutator (Mu) transposon-induced mutants, designed for functional genomics studies. Here, we describe the use of the BonnMu collection for identifying and characterizing mutations. Specifically, we describe workflows for use in both reverse and forward genetics strategies in maize. For reverse genetics, users first acquire a BonnMu F₂ stock of interest based on data accessible at the Maize Genetics and Genomics Database (MaizeGDB). We provide details here for their subsequent propagation and for the confirmation of Mu insertions by genotyping via PCR, with the ultimate goal of establishing genotype-phenotype relationships of interest. For forward genetics studies, we describe a workflow that involves a combined approach of Mutant-Seq (Mu-Seq) and bulked segregant RNA-seq (BSR-Seq), to identify the causal gene underlying a mutant phenotype of interest.