During past few years, we averaged approximately 3,000 seed samples supplied in response to 300 requests. These totals include 700 seed samples provided in response to 65 requests from 25 foreign countries. The request is then transmitted electronically through the internet to us. We presently have this capability through our WWW site. The value of the stocks While the vast majority of the mutants in the collection are too extreme for commercial use, and they are not usually evaluated and maintained with a view to their direct use in improving agricultural production or products, some of the mutants in our collection clearly have had a major impact of commercial importance.
Mutant alleles are useful to maize scientists in many different areas of research.
These mutations act as coordinates on genetic or physical maps of the maize genome. In addition, many define critical steps in metabolic, developmental, and other pathways of great interest to geneticists, physiologists, breeders, molecular biologists, chemists and other plant scientists. Mutant traits may be studied directly to investigate metabolic blocks in biosynthetic pathways or, alternatively, they may be used as tools for such purposes as locating or localizing genes or control of particular chromosome segments in transmission. These mutants give maize scientists a greater understanding of corn as a biological organism and thus can lead to applications that will improve corn agronomically. Genetic stocks represent the working stocks of maize geneticists and this project provides a service to geneticists and other biologists similar to that provided to chemists by chemical supply houses.