Two independently inherited electrophoretic variants of the lysine-rich histones of maize (Zea mays).

We report here the first instance of inherited intraspecific histone variation in plants. Maize lysine-rich histone I is composed of four subfractions that are electrophoretically distinct in long polyacrylamide gels. Initial segregation studies indicate that at least one subfraction shows mobility differences inherited as if controlled by a single Mendelian locus. The locus is not on the short arms of chromosomes 2 or 4. The third subfraction also shows variants. Indirect evidence indicates that the genes controlling the variants of this subfraction segregate independently of those of the first. We suggest the symbols alh-A188 and alh-W23 to designate two of the alleles we have discovered of the first subfraction (a) of the lysine-rich histones and clh-A188 and clh-W23 the alleles of the third subfraction (c) of the lysine-rich histones. Other strains of maize show other differences in their histone I fractions, suggesting that there is inbredline-specific polymorphism with respect to histone I variants. The meiotic chromosome mutants, elongate and sticky, do not appear to condition maize histone alterations that can be detected electrophoretically.