Evidence for a direct relationship between mitochondrial genome organization and regeneration ability in hexaploid wheat somatic tissue cultures

Abstract

Embryogenic and non-embryogenic long-term callus cultures of hexaploid wheat exhibit differences in the organization of their mitochondrial genome. Embryogenic and non-embryogenic fractions of callus cultures initiated from immature embryos of the wheat cultivar “Chinese Spring” have been isolated and subsequently subcultured. DNA-DNA hybridization experiments using labelled cloned wheat mitochondrial DNA fragments have shown that the mitochondrial DNA organization of embryogenic subcultures derived from embryogenic parts of “Chinese Spring” calli is closely related to that of the initial “Chinese Spring” calli, while non-embryogenic subcultures derived from non-embryogenic fragments of “Chinese Spring” calli exhibit a mitochondrial DNA organization similar to that found in non-embryogenic calli derived from cultivar “Aquila”. In addition, somatic tissue cultures initiated from three other non-embryogenic wheat cultivars (“Talent”, “Thesee” and “Capitole”) display mitochondrial DNA arrangements similar to those found in cultivar “Aquila”. These results strongly suggest that, in wheat callus cultures, a particular mitochondrial genome organization is correlated with the ability of cultured cells to regenerate whole plants.