Ears segregating for the colored aleurone mutant phenotype. Image courtesy of MG Neuffer via MaizeGDB.

Purple plant1's phenotype is highly variable depending on the genetic background the mutant is in. Images courtesy of MG Neuffer via MaizeGDB.

The two genes are also duplicates (homeologs) resulting from the maize whole genome duplication. From the picture below you can also see both the two genes and the regions they are in match up to single regions in rice and sorghum, two grasses that haven’t gone though a whole genome duplication since the great radiation of grass species that took place an estimated 50 million years ago (well after dinosaurs stopped walking the earth).

More interesting, at least to me, is the fact that there is NO gene equivalent to colored aleurone1 and purple plant1 in the region we’d expect to find such a gene in Brachypodium (the only other grass species with a sequenced genome)*. From all the genes that line up perfectly on either side we can predict the exact location the gene equivalent to colored aleurone1 and purple plant1 should be found in the Brachypodium genome. But the gene isn’t there…

The GEvo panel shown here can be regenerated at: http://tinyurl.com/yddlwor

The original version of this image had Pl1 mislabeled as C1. This version corrects that error.

For a couple more examples of comparisons between the four sequences grass genomes check out the Cogepedia post I spent this morning pulling together.

*The publication of which I celebrated just a little while ago.