Biparental plastid inheritance in Zantedeschia albomaculate (Araceae)

Most flowering plants exhibit maternal plastid inheritance. In Zantedeschia, however, biparental is known to occur in interspecific hybrids. Moreover, plastome-genome incompatibility exists between the different species. The evolutionary significance of biparental plastid inheritance and plastome-genome incompatibility is unclear. It is possible that the unusual genomic background of interspecific crosses affects plastid inheritance and that plastids inherit maternally in intraspecific hybrids as in most other flowering plants. The mode of plastid inheritance between Z. albomaculata subsp. albomaculata and Z. albomaculata subsp. macrocarpa was, therefore, investigated. Subspecies specific CAPS markers were developed and used to demonstrate that biparental plasmid inheritance occurs between these subspecies. This finding suggests that biparental plastid inheritance exists within Zantedeschia spp. and is not a result from the unusual genomic background of interspecific crosses