Characterization of Organellar DNA in Alloplasmic Lines of Brassica napus L.

Restriction analyses of chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA were used to compare 19 different Brassica napus lines. Since these lines are all involved in a study of alloplasmic effects in male-fertile B. napus, and the majority were extracted from different parts of a B. napus breeding programme, most cytoplasms are from B. napus, B. campestris or B. oleracea. Three cytoplasms differed from the expected pattern, emphazising the importance of control of the cytoplasms in alloplasmic studies. Chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA data produced analogous results, and these two sources of data are compared with respect to their usefulness in a plant breeding context where most of the samples are closely related.