Identification of a mutation in chloroplast DNA correlated with formation of defective chloroplasts in a variegated mutant of Nicotiana tabacum.

As in wild-type Nicotiana tabacum L., two satellite DNAs having densities of 1.700 and 1.705 g cm(-3) in CsCl were identified in the organelle fraction of homogenates made from variegated leaves of a cytoplasmic mutant of N. tabacum. As the proportion of white to green tissue increased a great reduction in the 1.700 chloroplast DNA occurred correlated with a concomitant reduction in the total number of defective and normal chloroplasts per cell. At the same time, there was an absolute increase in the 1.705 satellite DNA. Separation of the two satellite DNAs was achieved by one cycle of purification on NaI gradients. When the 1.700 chloroplast DNAs from white and from green tissue of variegated leaves were compared, identical properties were found by the conventional buoyant density, T m and renaturation kinetics measurements. However, using a specially constructed difference melting system, the 1.700 DNA from defective chloroplasts was shown to have an approximately 1% higher GC composition than the DNA from normal chloroplasts. Also, by renaturation of a mixture of alkali denatured normal and defective chloroplast DNAs and subsequent spreading in formamide for electron microscopy, internal regions of mismatching were observed. The nonhomologous region corresponded to about 500-1000 base pairs. No differences in composition of the 1.705 satellite DNA derived from white or green tissues were detected either by difference melting or formation of heteroduplexes.