INHERITANCE OF CHLOROPLAST AND MITOCHONDRIAL GENOMES IN PEDUNCULATE OAK INVESTIGATED WITH AN EFFICIENT PCR METHOD

The restriction patterns of two chloroplast fragments and one mitochon drial DNA fragment, amplified by PCR with universal primers, were stud ied to determine the mode of inheritance of these organelles in 143 pr ogeny of five intraspecific crosses in pedunculate oak (Quercus robur L.). The results indicate that both genomes are maternally inherited, an observation which agrees with the commonly observed pattern of inhe ritance in angiosperms. They confirm that both chloroplast DNA and mit ochondrial DNA can be used as a source of seed-specific markers for th e study of the geographic structure of oaks. This is the first report of organelle inheritance within the Fagaceae, an important and widespr ead tree family.