Distribution, inheritance and linkage relationships of ribosomal DNA spacer length variants in pea

DNA restriction endonuclease fragment analysis is used to examine the genetic organization, inheritance and linkage associations of the ribosomal DNA in pea. The substantial variation observed in the length of the intergenic spacer region is shown to segregate in Mendelian fashion involving two independent genetic loci, designated Rrn1 and Rrn2. Linkage between Rrn1 and two marker loci on chromosome 4 establishes the approximate location of this tandem array. Rrn2 shows linkage with a set of isozyme loci which assort independently of other markers on all seven chromosomes. Combining these observations with previous cytological data, we suggest that Rrn2 and the isozyme loci linked to it constitute a new linkage group on chromosome 7. The general absence of spacer length classes common to both rRNA loci in any of the lines we examined indicates that little or no genetic exchange occurs between the nonhomologous nucleolar organizer regions.