RAPD analysis of isolated mitochondrial DNA reveals heterogeneity in elite wild abortive (WA) cytoplasm in rice

RAPD profiles were generated using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) isolated from two cytoplasmic male-sterile lines, two restorer lines and four maintainer lines of rice. Of the 40 primers tested, 25 generated consistent and easily scoreable patterns that were used for the computation of pairwise similarities as well as UPGMA analyses, The different lines of rice, including lines IR58025A and IR62829A that contained the same wild abortive (WA) cytoplasm, were distinguishable on the basis of RAPD profiles. These latter two lines were not distinguishable from each other by mtDNA RFLP analyses with as many as 16 mtDNA probes. The data illustrate the utility of the RAPD technique as a powerful tool for distinguishing different cytoplasms that by other techniques appear to be similar. To our knowledge, this is the first report wherein RAPD profiles obtained with isolated mtDNA templates enable the distinction between two or more types of cytoplasms in rice.