Inheritance of mitochondrial DNA in lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.).

Restriction fragment analysis was used to examine the inheritance of lentil mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in F1 and F5 progeny from intrasubspecific (Lens culinaris ssp. culinaris) crosses and in F1 progeny from intersubspecific (Lens culinaris ssp. orientalis x L. culinaris ssp. culinaris) crosses. Southern blots of digested parental and progeny DNA were hybridized to heterologous maize mtDNA probes specific to coxI and atp6 genes. Two restriction fragment polymorphisms separated L.c. ssp. culinaris 'Laird' and 'Eston' from L.c. ssp. culinaris 'ILL5588', and one restriction fragment polymorphism distinguished L.c. ssp. culinaris 'Laird' and 'Eston' from L.c. ssp. orientalis 'LO4'. Twelve of 13 f1 progeny and all F5 progeny from the intrasubspecific crosses, and all F1 progeny from intersubspecific crosses had only maternal mtDNA restriction fragments. One f1 plant from an 'Eston' x 'ILL5588' cross inherited mtDNA fragments from both parents. Nuclear DNA inheritance was biparental in all F1 progeny.