Novel composition of mitochondrial genomes in Petunia somatic hybrids derived from cytoplasmic male sterile and fertile plants

Abstract

The mitochondrial genomes of petunia somatic hybrid plants, which were derived from the fusion of male fertile P. hybrida protoplasts with cytoplasmic male sterile P. parodii protoplasts, were analyzed by endonuclease restriction and Southern blot hybridization analyses. We studied sterile and fertile somatic hybrids to address two main questions. First, is there any correlation between the mitochondrial DNA restriction banding patterns of the sterile and fertile parents and the banding patterns of the respective sterile and fertile somatic hybrids? Second, does the structure of somatic hybrid mitochondrial genomes differ from the parental mitochondrial genomes?