Inheritance pattern of chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes in artificial hybrids of Porphyra yezoensis (Rhodophyta)

To investigate inheritance of chloroplasts and mitochondria (organelles) in the marine red alga Porphyra yezoensis, cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) profiles of the two strains, TU-2 and KGJ, as parental gametophytes and 44 hybrid sporophytes (i.e. female of TU-2 and male of KGJ) were examined. A carbamyl phosphate synthase small subunit gene (carA) and ribosomal protein S11 gene (rps11)-small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (rns) spacer region were used as molecular markers for the chloroplast and mitochondrial DNAs, respectively. Thirty-eight of 44 (86.4%) conchocelis colonies showed maternal banding patterns, five (11.4%) colonies showed biparental bands and one (2.2%) colony showed paternal bands in CAPS analyses both with chloroplast and mitochondrial markers. These results suggest that organelles of P. yezoensis are inherited uniparentally from the female parent.