Organellar inheritance in the allopolyploid moss Rhizomnium pseudopunctatum

Abstract
Earlier isozyme studies have proved that the moss Rhizomnium pseudopunctatum is an allopolyploid species whose progenitors are the haploid species R. magnifolium and R. gracile. A sequence comparison of chloroplast tRNALeu (UAA) and tRNAGly (UCC) gene introns, as well as mitochondrial fragments of nad5 and nad4 gene introns and exons in all three species reveals that the nucleotide sequences studied are almost identical in R. magnifolium and R. pseudopunctatum but differ in R. gracile. Both chloroplasts and mitochondria of R. pseudopunctatum were therefore probably inherited from one parent: R. magnifolium. To our knowledge, this is the first report of uniparental transmission of organelles in mosses.