Cytoplasmic Male Sterility-Associated Structural Variation of the Mitochondrial Genome Regions Containing rps3 and orf215 in Sugar Beet Beta vulgaris L.

Several 5′-degenerate primers were selected by computer analysis and used for mtDNA typing in sugar beet cultivars with cytoplasms of the S (typical for cytoplasmic male sterility) or N (normal) type. A number of N- or S-specific markers were found to correspond to transcribed mitochondrial genes. One was from the orf215 region of the N-type mtDNA. A physical map of the corresponding region was constructed for the S-type mtDNA, and a substantial difference observed for the two genome types. One N-specific marker proved to contain a rearranged rps3 region and a truncated atp9 copy. With the known nucleotide sequence of this marker, three-primer PCR was designed and showed that both variants of the rps3 region simultaneously take place in the mtDNA pool, the new one occurring in a substochiometric proportion.