Transposable elements were just discovered in maize by Dr. Barbara McClintock over 40 years ago. She first genetically described the Ac-Ds system but there is still much that is not understood at the molecular level in this system. Dr. Mary Honma, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Plant Biology, will characterize the behavior of these elements in tomato and Arabidopsis in the laboratory of Dr. Barbara Baker at the Gene Expression Laboratory at Albany, California. A successful completion of these studies will aid in the construction of genetic maps of tomato and Arabidopsis as well as extending our insight into the characteristics of the Ac-Ds transposable element system.
