Journal of Heredity Advance Access originally published online on December 23, 2004
Journal of Heredity 2005 96(1):66-70; doi:10.1093/jhered/esi002
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© 2005 The American Genetic Association
Brief Communication |
Chloroplast DNA Inheritance in the Orchid Anacamptis palustris Using Single-Seed Polymerase Chain Reaction
From the Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Via Foria, 223, I-80139 Naples, Italy (Cozzolino and Cafasso); and Geobotanisches Institut, ETH Zürich, Zollikerstr. 107, CH-8008 Zürich, Switzerland (Widmer)
Address correspondence to Salvatore Cozzolino at the address above, or e-mail: cozzolin{at}unina.it.
The modality of chloroplast inheritance in orchids has been investigated only in a few species due to the difficulties associated with the analysis of large progeny numbers from experimental crosses. To test chloroplast DNA inheritance in the orchid Anacamptis palustris, we took advantage of the presence of a highly variable minisatellite repeat located in the tRNALEU intron in the chloroplast genome. Seed progeny obtained from experimental crosses between parental individuals carrying different chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) minisatellite repeat numbers were analyzed using a single-seed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) protocol. All examined seeds displayed the maternal cpDNA haplotypes, indicating that cpDNA inheritance is strictly maternal in this Mediterranean orchid species. No evidence for paternal leakage was found. This finding concurs with results obtained from PCR amplifications of pollen massulae that exclude the presence of chloroplast DNA in the pollen tetrads.