Electrophoretic mutants as useful markers for chromosome aberrations.

The efficacy of using an electrophoretic mutant to mark chromosome aberrations was demonstrated for an interchange in maize. Using a closely-linked esterase gene (E(4)), plants homozygous and heterozygous for this interchange and plants homozygous for the normal chromosomes were detectable in the seedling stage via an electrophoretic assay; the error was only 0.3%.