Chloroplast DNA differences in the genus Oenothera subsection Munzia: a short direct repeat resembling the lambda chromosomal attachment site occurs as a deletion/insertion within an intron of an NADH-dehydrogenase gene.

A small restriction fragment length mutation has been mapped in the large inverted repeats of the chloroplast (cp) DNA of Munzia-Oenothera species (vom Stein and Hachtel 1986). This mutation could be localized within the intron of a reading frame presumably coding for subunit B of an NADH-dehydrogenase (ndhB). Sequence analysis revealed a 24 bp duplication/deletion. The predicted secondary structure of the ndhB-intron is altered by this duplication/deletion. Part of the directly repeated segment shows remarkable similarity to the phage lambda attachment site. Evidence is presented for similar sequences in other plastome regions where deletions/insertions have been found. Furthermore, the locations of the genes for other components of the NADH-dehydrogenase (ndhA, ndhC, ndhD, ndhE, ndhF) were established by heterologous hybridization using gene probes from tobacco cpDNA.