sept. i 5 ,1924 A Dominant Lethal Chlorophyll Mutation in Maize 
309 
SUMMARY 
A sectorial chimera in which one-half 
of the plant was yellow, the other green, 
appeared in an F t maize hybrid. Pol¬ 
len from the two halves of the plant was 
applied to normal green plants. The 
cross having the green side of the chi¬ 
mera as the male parent gave only 
green seedlings in Fj and F 2 progeny, 
while the cross having as a male parent 
the yellow side of the chimera gave 
equal numbers of yellow and green 
plants in the F 1 . The green plants gave 
only green F 2 and the yellow plants in 
the field died after producing three or 
four leaves. Yellow plants raised in 
the greenhouse reached maturity and 
produced pollen but no silks. The pol¬ 
len from these yellow plants used on the 
annual teosinte, Euchlaena mexicana ) 
resulted in an with approximately 
equal numbers of yellow and green 
seedlings. 
It is concluded that the yellow char¬ 
acter represents a dominant mutation, 
lethal under field culture. From the 
fact that the germ plasm proved to be 
of the same nature as the somatic tissue, 
it is suggested that the same phenome¬ 
non may be present in Japonica plants 
where the striping extends through the 
inflorescence. 
