ARS | Publication request: CUCUMIS MITOCHONDRIAL GENOMES BREAK ALL THE RULES

Submitted to: Slovenian Genetics Society Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: September 15, 2000
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: Plants possess three major genomes, carried in the chloroplast, mitochondrium, and nucleus. The organellar (chloroplast and mitochondrial) genomes are almost always maternally transmitted. The intimate interaction between the nuclear and organellar genomes has been proposed as the reason for their maternal transmission. Because strict maternal transmission predominates among angiosperms, no method exists to manipulate this important genome. A routine mitochondrial transition system for a higher plant would allow geneticists to introduce and study genetic changes into the mitochondrial genome. This system would be applicable both to basic research on the efficacy of engineered mitochondrial genes, as well as to practical research on genetic improvement of the mitochondrial genome. Cucumber may be an excellent model system for mitochondrial transformation because its mitochondria show paternal transmission, microspores have relatively few, huge mitochondria in microspores, and the existence of a unique mitochondrial mutation which may prove useful to introduce foreign DNA into the mitochondrial genome and to study their expression.