Ultrastructural and molecular characterization of altered plastids in nuclear gene controlled yellow stripe mutant of Pennisetum americanum

Abstract

The ultrastructural and molecular biological studies were conducted to elucidate the changes in the nuclear gene controlled plastid alterations in yellow stripe mutant of Pennisetum americanum. The plastids in yellow tissue were bound by a double membrane envelope and no internal thylakoid membrane differentiation, whereas plastid development was normal in the green tissue. The nuclear gene apparently influences the individual plastids as evidenced by the presence of heteroplastidic cells. Ribosomal RNAs were extracted from green and yellow seedlings with homozygous recessive and heterozygous genotypes. Plastid specific 23S and 16S rRNAs were absent in the yellow seedlings irrespective of the genotype. The presence of disorganized lamellar membranes in the rRNA/ribosome deficient plastids indicate that they are synthesized outside the plastid compartment. Restriction endonuclease analysis revealed no detectable differences in fragmentation pattern of the plastid DNAs from green and reverted green seedlings. This is consistent with the suggestion that the nuclear gene is not inducing any change in the plastid genome size and in the restriction enzyme recognition sites.