Remarkable restriction pattern differences between green and white branches of variegated ‘plastome mutator’ plants of Oenothera hookeri

Abstract

Green-white variegated plants of the pm line of Oenothera hookeri were reported in the literature to be due to the action of a nuclear recessive ‘plastome mutator’ (pm). The plastid DNAs of green and white leaves have been studied by restriction analysis and Southern hybridization. Remarkable differences in restriction pattern have been found between them. The green plastids show the typical pattern of plastome I; the white plastids give the pattern of plastome III. The conclusion from our experiments is: variegated ‘pm’ plants contain two genetically different types of plastids. Their variegation is not due to nuclear gene-induced plastome mutations, but is the result of hybrid bleaching of the type III plastids, which were combined with type I plastids following — as we suppose-inadvertent pollination.