Maize as a model of higher plant mitochondrial genome plasticity

Higher plant mitochondrial genomes exhibit extraordinary plasticity in their organization where each genome is represented by a set of molecules at a stoichiometric equilibrium. This population of mtDNA molecules is generated by recombination between repeated sequences and those recombinogenic rearrangements seem to be the main force producing variability. This review emphasizes the consequences of such genomic rearrangements on higher plant mitochondrial gene organization and expression, and how the underlying evolutionary process might explain the size variability between plant species.