Molecular characterization of an aberrant allele for the Gy3 glycinin gene: a chromosomal rearrangement.

The soybean variety Forrest contains an aberrant allele for the Gy3 glycinin gene. The aberrant allele is designated gy3 because mRNA for the G3 glycinin subunit is reduced to below detectable amounts in the seed. Molecular and genetic characterization of gy3 show it to be associated with a chromosomal rearrangement that causes the 5' halves and 3' halves of the gene to become separated from one another in the genome. An inversion is the simplest structural model that accounts for the genetic and molecular features of the chromosomal rearrangement involving gy3, although more complex models that involve reciprocal translocations are also consistent with the data.