Problem:

A maize plant is homozygous for an allele Cm, caused by the insertion of a Ds element into the coding region of a gene (C) that encodes an enzyme necessary for the synthesis of anthocyanin in maize kernels.

Required:

Question 1: If this plant also contains an Ac element in its genome, what will be the phenotype of its kernels? Justify your answers.

Question 2: If this plant does not contain an Ac element, what will be the kernel phenotype? Justify your answers.

Question 3: If the plant does not contain an Ac element, but it does contain an autonomous element for another family of transposon, what will be the kernel phenotype? Justify your answers.

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