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Genetic flexibility of plant chloroplasts

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Abstract

The chloroplast genome is thought to be monomorphic, or genetically uniform within individual plants1. But a single plant cell may contain several hundred chloroplasts, each containing up to 900 copies of DNA2, so there is a huge potential for accumulating and maintaining mutations. I found that the chloroplast genome of common groundsel, Senecio vulgaris,is polymorphic for a point mutation that confers resistance to triazine herbicides.Moreover, this polymorphism can vary within and among different leaves of a single plant.

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Figure 1: Analysis of chloroplast DNA polymorphism.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology and Weed Science, Swiss Federal Research Station for Fruit-Growing, Viticulture and Horticulture, 8820, Wdenswil, Switzerland

    Jürg E. Frey

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  1. Jürg E. Frey
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Frey, J. Genetic flexibility of plant chloroplasts. Nature 398, 115–116 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/18139

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