Mitochondrial DMA variation in somatic embryogenic cultures ofLarix.

outhern hybridization analysis using wheat mitochondrial gene-specific probes indicates that changes in mitochondrial genomic organization and the relative representation of certain genomic regions occur during in vitro somatic embryogenic cell culture ofLarix species. We observed differences in the mitochondrial (mt)DNA hybridization patterns between somatic embryogenic cell cultures and trees grown from seed forLarix leptolepis,L. decidua, and the reciprocal hybrids of these twoLarix species. This is the first study to describe the correlation of molecular changes in a gymnosperm mitochondrial genome with in vitro somatic embryogenic cell culture. Quantitative differences in mtDNA hybridization signals were also observed among a 4-year-old somatic embryogenic cell culture ofLarix ×eurolepis trees regenerated from this culture, and the seed source tree from which the somatic embryogenic cell cultures were initiated.