Mitochondrial DNA variations and nuclear RFLPs reflect different genetic similarities among 23 Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes

The mitochondrial genome of 23 Arabidopsis thaliana ecotypes was analysed by Southern hybridization in total cellular DNA. Firstly, the extent of divergence between the mitochondrial genomes in closely related lines of one plant species and secondly, the use of mitochondrial versus nuclear RFLPs to determine evolutionary relationships between Arabidopsis ecotype isolates was investigated. Highly divergent stoichiometries of alternative mitochondrial genome arrangements characterize individual ecotypes including the complete loss of a 5 kb region from ecotype Landsberg without apparent effect on plant viability. The genetic similarities between ecotypes suggested by mitochondrial genome arrangements differ from those deduced from 18 nuclear RFLP loci (CAPS markers). Similarity of nuclear RFLP patterns among the 23 Arabidopsis ecotypes neither correlates with their geographic origin nor with the observed mitochondrial genome arrangements, A promiscuous mitochondrial sequence insertion previously identified in ecotype Columbia is also found in the nuclear genomes of ecotypes Eifel, Enkheim and Hilversum. Two ecotypes (Eifel and Tabor) displaying identical RFLP patterns at all 18 nuclear loci show differences in both this sequence transfer and a mitochondrial DNA recombination event.