Who? Mu killer was discovered and analyzed by R.Keith Slotkin and Damon Lisch in the lab of Mike Freeling in the department of Plant and Microbial Biology at University of California Berkeley.
What? Mu killer is an inverted duplication of a deleted version of the Mutator autonomous element MuDR. This inverted duplication is inserted in a genomic deletion, and is flanked on either side by two maize gene promoters. One of these promoters makes a long double-stranded RNA that initiates a RNA-dependent transcriptional gene silencing pathway that results in the heritable chromatin modification of MuDR elements.
Why? Although Muk is a one time rearrangement, the creation of inverted duplications by active transposons could be a common phenominon. Transposable elements that become very active may regulate their own activity by creating rearrangements that will silence themselves.
When? Muk was first noticed by Damon Lisch in 1993. It probably arose just shortly before it was noticed. Muk was cloned by Keith Slotkin in 2004.
Where? The Mu killer inverted duplication is located near the tip of the short arm of chromosome 3. See the Using Mu killer section for details on genotyping for Muk.
How? Muk looks to be an inverted duplication / deletion caused by an inaccurate transposition of a version of MuDR to a linked location. The transposition event may have looped out a circular region inbetween the donor and acceptor transposon site, creating a deletion.
