Reorganization of mitochondrial genomes of cytoplasmic revertants in cms-S inbred line WF9 in maize

Summary Cytoplasmic reversion to fertility in cms-S maize has been previously correlated with changes in mitochondrial genome organization, specifically with loss of the autonomously replicating linear plasmid-like DNAs, S1 and S2, and with accompanying alterations in the high molecular weight mtDNA (main genome) that specifically involved S1 and S2 sequences. These studies, however, dealt with cytoplasmic revertants occurring in the cms-VG M825 inbred line and in the cms-VG M825/Oh07 F₁ hybrid. This paper deals principally with patterns of mitochondrial DNA reorganization accompanying cytoplasmic reversion to fertility in the WF9 inbred line nuclear background. Here the free S1 and S2 plasmid-like DNAs are retained in the revertants. Mitochondrial DNA analysis by Southern hybridization using cloned fragments of S1 and S2 shows altered organization around S-homologous regions in the main mitochondrial genome of revertants as compared with that of the male-sterile parental controls, but the pattern of main genome changes involving these regions differs from that of the cytoplasmic revertants that occurred in M825 and M825/Oh07 backgrounds. Similar experiments using a clone of the cytochrome oxidase I (COX I) gene of maize as a probe indicate that reorganization in this region is also involved in the changes in mtDNA that accompany cytoplasmic reversion to male fertility in cms-S WF9. The heterogeneity in patterns of reorganization of the main mtDNA genome that accompany cytoplasmic reversion in the same and different nuclear backgrounds are discussed in relation to cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS).