Columbia, MO -- It's a corn plant only a geneticist could love,
but an MU researcher has found a way to help scientists love it.
Instead of the characteristic fan-like tassel that waves
majestically atop the stalk, this corn plant sends up a
cartoonishly skinny stick. Its ears -- if it makes them at all
-- resemble small, chubby, lime-green caterpillars, not exactly
something you want to dig your teeth into. To top it off, the
corn plant stands only about three feet tall, at full maturity,
and has few leaves. "A farmer would say this corn plant looks
terrible," said Paula McSteen, associate professor of biological
sciences at MU and lead investigator of the study. "For me, the
idea is that if the plant looks that terrible, the missing gene
must control a really important process." By using a positional
cloning technique and molecular markers, McSteen and her
colleagues were able to pinpoint the absent gene, which they
named vanishing tassel2 or vt2. The gene encodes an enzyme,
called tryptophan aminotransfera