Abstract
IN a recent discussion of mutable genes, Fincham1 proposed that the mechanism underlying the instability in higher plants, especially the diversity in the pallidarecurrens mutable system of Antirrhinum majus, could be explained by using Callan's chromosome model2 in which a cistron consists of serial (tandem) repetitive copies of DNA sequences. According to Fincham, specific features of unstable genes usually include: (a) the occurrence of frequent stable alleles, quantitatively graded in expression; (b) the mutation to other unstable alleles, differing from the original in the timing or frequency of mutation, or in the kinds of stable alleles most often produced; and (c) the general genotypic and environmental effect on the specific mutation of a labile gene. Fincham marshals evidence from mutable gene studies which suggests that a serial repetition of DNA sequences is a property of the genes of higher plants and, according to Callan's model, a cistron consists of a number of copies joined end to end and arranged as intercorrectible “master” and “slave copies”.
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PETERSON, P. Mutable Genes in Maize and Callan's Chromosome Model of Serially Repeated Gene Copies. Nature 221, 480–481 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/221480a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/221480a0
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