An intact F1ATPase alpha-subunit gene and a pseudogene with differing genomic organization are detected in both male-fertile and CMS petunia mitochondria.

The gene copies for the alpha-subunit of the mitochondrial F1ATPase (atpA) were isolated and characterized in both male-fertile and cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) petunia. Two copies, an intact gene and a truncated gene, were detected in both cytoplasms. The accumulated data, based upon a comparison of the sequences (the open reading frames as well as the 5' and 3' flanking regions) of the two atpA copies, both in male-fertile and CMS Petunia, indicate that: (1) they differ in their genomic organization and (2) a common progenitor cytoplasm, containing two copies of an intact atpA sequence, served as the origin for the atpA copies of the fertility and CMS-inducing cytoplasms. Homologous recombination through the progenitor intact atpA sequences is assumed to have caused the rearrangement in the 3' portion of the atpA open reading frame and the generation of the truncated atpA gene. It is thus suggested that the atpA pseudogenes, in both male-fertile and CMS cytoplasms, originated from a common progenitor atpA pseudogene sequence.