POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION SINGLE-STRAND CONFORMATIONAL POLYMORPHISM ANALYSIS OF INTRASPECIFIC AND INTERSPECIFIC VARIATIONS IN ORGANELLAR DNA REGIONS OF AEGILOPS MUTICA AND RELATED SPECIES

In order to study the phylogeny of Aegilops mutica in the genera of Tr iticum and Aegilops, variations in chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA r egions were investigated by polymerase chain reaction-single strand co nformational polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) analysis. Nine lines, each of Ae. mutica and Ae. speltoides, were studied together with nine other Trit icum and Aegilops species, including T. aestivum. By analyzing 9.7-kb chloroplast and 13.1-kb mitochondrial DNA regions, a total of 268 band s were detected, of which 176 (65.7%) showed variation within and/or b etween species. The level of intraspecific variation of Ae. mutica was lower than that of Ae. speltoides. The low level of the intraspecific variation of Ae. mutica was contrary to the expectation from previous studies on morphological and cytolo-gical characters. In the phylogen etic trees based on SSCP, Ae. mutica, Ae. speltoides and the other fou r species of the section Sitopsis (the subsection Emarginata) were sep arated into three different clusters. In addition, T. aestivum was inc luded in the cluster of Ae. speltoides in the phylogenetic trees. This result suggests that Ae. speltoides is the cytoplasmic donor of commo n wheat.