Use of Maize (<i>Zea mays</i> L.) Mutator Transposon-Induced Mutants of the <i>BonnMu</i> Resource for Forward and Reverse Genetics Studies

The <i>BonnMu</i> resource represents a tagged collection of maize (<i>Zea mays</i> L.) <i>Mutator</i> (<i>Mu</i>) transposon-induced mutants, designed for functional genomics studies. Here, we describe the use of the <i>BonnMu</i> collection for identifying and characterizing mutations. Specifically, we describe workflows for use in both reverse and forward genetics strategies in maize. For reverse genetics, users first acquire a <i>BonnMu</i> F₂ stock of interest based on data accessible at the Maize Genetics and Genomics Database (MaizeGDB). We provide details here for their subsequent propagation and for the confirmation of <i>Mu</i> insertions by genotyping via PCR, with the ultimate goal of establishing genotype-phenotype relationships of interest. For forward genetics studies, we describe a workflow that involves a combined approach of Mutant-Seq (Mu-Seq) and bulked segregant RNA-seq (BSR-Seq), to identify the causal gene underlying a mutant phenotype of interest.