[Inheritance of organelle genomes of the somatic hybrid between Cleopatra mandarin (Citrus reticulata) and flying dragon (Poncirus trifoliata)].

Cleaved Amplified Polymorphic Sequence (CAPS) was successfully applied to analyze the organelle composition of three eight-year-old trees of the somatic hybrid between Cleopatra mandarin (Citrus reticulata) and Flying Dragon (Poncirus trifoliata). Five chloroplast and five mitochondrial universal primer pairs were used. All chloroplast primer pairs (rbcL-rbcL, rbcL-PSA I, TrnH-Trnk, TrnD-TrnT, TrnK-TrnK) and three (nad 1 exon B-nad 1 exon C, 18S rRNA-5S rRNA, nad 4 exon 1-nad 4 exon 2) of the five mitochondrial primer pairs, were efficiently amplified, but no polymorphism was detected, when the PCR products were digested by eleven restriction endonucleases, including, Hin6 I, Bus RI, Taq I, Msp I, HinfI, AluI, Dra I, EcoR I, Hind III, BamH I and Pst I respectively, three polymorphic cpDNA-CAPS markers (rbcL-rbcL/Hin 6 I, TrnD-TrnT/BusR I, TrnD-TrnT/Taq I) and one mtDNA-CAPS marker (nad 1-nad1/Msp I) were found. The results showed that cpDNA in the somatic hybrid plants came from Flying Dragon, the mesophyll parent, and mtDNA from Cleopatra mandarin, the embryogenic suspension parent uniformly. In order to prove the reliability of CAPS results, and to get more detailed information about the mtDNA inheritance, RFLP analyses was conducted. Genomic DNA of the somatic hybrids and their corresponding parents were digested by five restriction endonucleases (Dra I, EcoR I, Hind III, BamH I and Pst I), and hybridized with five mitochondrial probes (Cob, Pro 2, Pro I, atp 6, 26S rRNA) as well as one chloroplast probe, i.e. the PCR product of Flying Dragon with the primer pair of trnd 1-trnt 1. The results were in line with those of CAPS, and no novel bands were detected, which indicated that no organelle DNA recombination or rearrangement have been detected in the hybrid plants. The research showed that novel pattern of nuclear-mitochondria-chloroplast interaction could be reached via protoplast fusion.