Nucleotide sequence of the maize transposable element Mul.

A cloned DNA fragment from the maize allele Adhl-S3034 contains all of Mul, an insertion element involved in Robertson's Mutator activity. The element is 1367 base pairs (bp) long and is flanked by nine bp direct repeats of insertion site DNA. It has inverted terminal repeats of 215 and 213 bp showing 95% homology. Within the element are two direct repeats of 104 bp showing 96% homology. Four open reading frames (ORFs) were found, two in each DNA strand. Mul can be divided into two halves, each containing one terminal inverted repeat, an internal direct repeat, and two overlapping ORFs. The GC content of each half is high (70%), while that of a central 60 base portion of the element is low (26%). The central region contains the only sequence resembling the TAATA Goldberg and Hogness eukaryotic promoter signal. Multiple copies of DNA sequences related to Mul found in Mutator maize plants are generally similar in organization to the cloned element. A larger version containing a discrete 300 to 400 base pair insertion was found in some Mutator lines.