Mutagenicity of atrazine: a maize-microbe bioassay.

A water-soluble extract from maize plants grown in the presence of atrazine contained a mutagenic agent(s) when tested on strains of yeast. Atrazine alone or control plants not treated with atrazine did not express mutagenic properties. The reversion frequency at the waxy locus in pollen grains from plants grown in atrazine was higher than in control plants.

Monosomic Analysis of Fatty Acid Composition in Embryo Lipids of ZEA MAYS L.

The effects of monosomy of specific chromosomes on the fatty acid composition of maize embryos were studied. A novel technique was developed to obtain fatty acid profiles of single embryos without reducing the viability of the sampled kernels. Monosomic 2 embryos had significantly more oleic acid and significantly less linoleic acid than diploid control embryos.