Mitochondrial DNA rearrangements in somatic hybrids of Solanum tuberosum and Solanum brevidens

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Abstract
Thirty somatic hybrids between Solanum tuberosum and Solanum brevidens were analysed for mitochondrial and chloroplast genome rearrangements. In all cases, the chloroplast genomes were inherited from one of the parental protoplast populations. No chloroplast DNA alterations were evident but a range of mitochondrial DNA alterations, from zero to extensive intra- and inter-molecular recombinations, were found. Such recombinations involved specific ‘recombination hot spots’ in the mitochondrial genome. Not all hybrids regenerated from a common callus possessed identical mitochondrial genomes, suggesting that sorting out of mitochondrial populations in the callus may have been incomplete at the plant regeneration stage. Sorting out of organelles in planta was not observed.