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Characterisation and expression of the mitochondrial genome of a new type of cytoplasmic male-sterile sunflower

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Abstract

A new cytoplasmic male sterile sunflower, CMS3 [44], was characterised in relation to the Petiolaris (PET1) cytoplasmic male-sterile sunflower, CMS89 [25]. Southern blot analysis showed that the mitochondrial genome of CMS3 contains unique rearrangements in at least five loci (atp6, atp9, atpA, nad1+5 and coxIII) compared to the PET1 sterile and the fertile cytoplasms. Transcripts of two (coxIII and atp6) of the five rearranged loci differed in CMS3 when compared to the corresponding loci in the PET1 and fertile cytoplasms. In organello protein synthesis experiments showed that the ca. 15 kDa mitochondrial polypeptide, characteristic of PET1, is not present in the CMS3 line. These data suggest that the molecular basis of male sterility in the CMS3 line differs from that of the PET1 cytoplasm. The nucleotide sequences of the coding and the immediate flanking regions of the coxIII and atp6 genes of CMS3 were compared to the corresponding regions from the fertile sunflower. In CMS3, the ORFB-cox III locus is located immediately 3′ to the atpA gene whereas in the fertile cytoplasm these two loci are ca. 60 kb apart. This DNA rearrangement probably involved a 265 bp repeat which may be implicated in the DNA recombination associated with PET1 CMS. The atp6 gene in CMS3 contains a 5′-terminal extention which results in an extended ORF. The potential involvement of the rearrangements associated with the coxIII and atp6 loci in relation to the CMS phenotype is discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Genetics, Institute for Molecular Biological Sciences, BioCentrum Amsterdam, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1087, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Mariana Spassova, H. John J. Nijkamp & Jacques Hille

  2. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3RB, Oxford, UK

    Françoise Moneger & Christopher J. Leaver

  3. Institute of Wheat and Sunflower ‘Dobroudja’, 9520, General Toshevo, Bulgaria

    Peter Petrov

  4. Institute of Genetic Engineering, Plant Biotechnology Research Centre, 2232, Kostinbrod-2, Bulgaria

    Mariana Spassova & Atanas Atanassov

Authors
  1. Mariana Spassova
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  2. Françoise Moneger
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  3. Christopher J. Leaver
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  4. Peter Petrov
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  5. Atanas Atanassov
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  6. H. John J. Nijkamp
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  7. Jacques Hille
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Spassova, M., Moneger, F., Leaver, C.J. et al. Characterisation and expression of the mitochondrial genome of a new type of cytoplasmic male-sterile sunflower. Plant Mol Biol 26, 1819–1831 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00019495

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00019495

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