<p style="text-align: justify;">LY038 maize was developed using microprojectile bombardment with DNA-coated gold microprojectiles accelerated into callus derived from maize inbred line H99. The DNA used comprised a 5.9 Kb fragment of plasmid PV-ZMPQ76 containing the <i>cordapA</i> cassette and an <i>nptII</i> cassette as a selectable marker which was flanked by <i>loxP</i> recombination sites. Selection of transgenic callus and regenerated plants was performed by growth on paromomycin and plants positive for the <i>cordapA</i> gene by PCR were crossed to another maize line engineered to express the Cre recombinase protein. The Cre recombinase in the resulting hybrid initiated the excision of the DNA fragment, containing the <i>nptII</i> gene cassette flanked by the <i>loxP</i> sites, and splicing together of the two flanking chromosomal DNA fragments. The progeny were screened for plants that did not contain the <i>nptII</i> gene cassette, but contained the <i>cordapA</i> gene cassette. The <i>cre</i> gene, which was also integrated into the maize genome, was segregated away from the <i>cordapA</i> gene through subsequent breeding.</p>
