Changes in the molecular organization of the mitochondrial genome in albino tissue cultures derived from wheat pollen embryos and in plants regenerated from these cultures

Abstract

Total DNA was isolated from albino short- and long-term tissue cultures prepared from pollen embryos of wheat cultivars Chinese Spring and Aquila respectively and from the corresponding albino plants regenerated from these cultures. The DNA was digested with Sall, fractionated and probed with cloned restriction fragments of wheat mitochondrial DNA. These probes hybridized to regions of the mitochondrial DNA known to vary in somatic tissue cultures initiated from immature embryos of Aquila and Chinese Spring and in green plants regenerated from Chinese Spring embryogenic tissue cultures. The hybridization patterns obtained showed that the variability detected in albino androgenic cultures was similar to that previously observed in a comparable somatic system. However, all the regenerated albino plantlets within each group had the same mitochondrial genome organization, contrary to plants regenerated from somatic tissue cultures.