title: Cell-to-cell movement of mitochondria in plants.
abstract: We report cell-to-cell movement of mitochondria through a graft junction. Mitochondrial movement was discovered in an experiment designed to select for chloroplast transfer from Nicotiana sylvestris into Nicotiana tabacum cells. The alloplasmic N. tabacum line we used carries Nicotiana undulata cytoplasmic genomes, and its flowers are male sterile due to the foreign mitochondrial genome. Thus, rare mitochondrial DNA transfer from N. sylvestris to N. tabacum could be recognized by restoration of fertile flower anatomy. Analyses of the mitochondrial genomes revealed extensive recombination, tentatively linking male sterility to orf293, a mitochondrial gene causing homeotic conversion of anthers into petals. Demonstrating cell-to-cell movement of mitochondria reconstructs the evolutionary process of horizontal mitochondrial DNA transfer and enables modification of the mitochondrial genome by DNA transmitted from a sexually incompatible species. Conversion of anthers into petals is a visual marker that can be useful for mitochondrial transformation.
authors.affiliation: Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854;
authors.forename: Csanad
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gurdon
authors.affiliation: Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854;
authors.forename: Zora
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Svab
authors.affiliation: Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854;
authors.forename: Yaping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854;
authors.forename: Dibyendu
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Waksman Institute of Microbiology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ 08854; Plant Biology & Pathology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 maliga@waksman.rutgers.edu.
authors.forename: Pal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maliga
mesh_terms: D002465:Cell Movement; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000502:physiology*; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D018087:Plastids
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: grafting; horizontal gene transfer; mitochondria; plastid; tobacco