Differential organellar inheritance in Passiflora's (Passifloraceae) subgenera

Area of Science:

• Plant genetics
• Molecular evolution
• Genomics

Background:

• Interspecific hybridization in Passiflora genus.
• Understanding organelle DNA inheritance is key to plant evolution.
• Previous studies on Passiflora molecular evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the inheritance patterns of chloroplast (cpDNA), mitochondrial (mtDNA), and nuclear ribosomal DNA (ITS) in interspecific Passiflora hybrids.
• To confirm the hybrid origin of artificial and natural Passiflora hybrids.
• To explore factors influencing cpDNA inheritance in Passiflora.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of four cpDNA regions, one mtDNA region, and one nuclear ITS region.
• DNA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis.
• Comparison of DNA sequences across different Passiflora subgenera.

Main Results:

• ITS sequencing confirmed the hybrid origin of all studied Passiflora hybrids.
• All studied mtDNAs exhibited maternal inheritance.
• cpDNA displayed varied inheritance: paternal in hybrids from the Passiflora subgenus and maternal in hybrids from the Decaloba subgenus.

Conclusions:

• The study confirms the hybrid origin of Passiflora hybrids and highlights diverse cpDNA inheritance patterns.
• Maternal inheritance of mtDNA is consistent across studied hybrids.
• The findings provide crucial insights into the molecular evolution of the Passiflora genus and factors governing cpDNA inheritance.