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Among the fertile sugar beet lines with nuclear sterility maintenance genes, rf, in a homozygous recessive state, sublines capable of reverting spontaneously at a high rate to sterility were identified. Of 24 related fertile sublines studied, 6 were found to spontaneously revert to sterility with a frequency of about 19%. Genetic analysis confirmed the cytoplasmic nature of spontaneously arising sterility. Reversion to sterility in these sublines was accompanied by alterations in the mitochondrial genome structure: loss of the autonomously replicating minicircle c (1.3 kb) and changes in the restriction patterns of high-molecular-weight mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Southern hybridixation analysis with cloned minicircle c as a probe revealed no integration of this DNA molecule into the main mitochondrial and nuclear genomes of the revertants. Comparative BamHI and EcoRI restriction analysis of the mtDNA from the sterile revertants and fertile parental subline showed that the spontaneous reversion is accompanied by extensive genomic rearrangement. Southern blot analysis with cloned α-subunit of F1-ATPase (atpA) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit II (COX II) genes as probes indicated that the changes in mtDNA accompanying spontaneous reversion to sterility involved these regions. The mitochondrial genomes of the spontaneous revertants and the sterile analogue were shown to be identical.

The higher-plant mitochondrial (mt) genome differs from the animal genome in many respects. The mt genomes of plants attain 2500 kb, but those of animals do not exceed 18 kb. The plant mt genomes are organised as multiple circular molecules and they contain, in addition to high molecular weight (HMW) DNA, low molecular weight (LMW) DNA, including plasmid-like molecules (Newton, 1988).