Unlike animals that possess a small, compact, gene-dense, circular mitochondrial (mt) genome, land plants have mt genome which is organized as the collection of circular and linear molecules of various sizes. Plant mt genomes are known to rapidly change copy number and gene order due to intramolecular recombination. The recombinations give rise to the chimeric genes, composed of different parts. Expression of some chimeric genes may damage mt functions and cause cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS). DNA rearrangements in mt genome could create novel regulatory reagions and modify gene expression pattern. Silene vulgaris is an appropriate model to study mt gene expression owing to the presence of various lineages, differing in the structure of mt genome. Owing to rare paternal transmission, two or more mt genomes may coexist in the same individual (heteroplasmy). We plan to study expression of both chimeric and standard mt genes and to understand their relationship to CMS. Gene expression in two different mt genomes of heteroplasmic individual will be also analysed. We have adopted all necessary techniques – DNA cloning, non-radioactive Northern hybridization, quantitative PCR, primer extension and others.
Working place: Institute of Experimental Botany CAS, Czech Republic, Praha 6
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