An unusual K-box sequence of a maize MADS-box gene

When maize genomic DNA was amplified with the degenerate primers recognizin g the K-box sequence of the agamous-class MADS-box genes, we obtained a 190 -bp fragment similar in length to the product of agamous cDNA amplification . This amplicon comprises almost complete sequences of exons 3 and 5, a sho rt stretch identical to the corresponding sequence of the intron 3 in the m aize genes zmm1 and zag2, and a longer stretch 87% homologous to the corres ponding sequence of the intron 4 in zmm1. The amplicon can be a fragment of a transposed sequence.