Abstract
Mitochondrial functions depend on the proper maintenance and expression of the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA). Therefore, understanding mtDNA replication and repair requires methods to assess its integrity. Mutations or chemical treatments that affect processes involved in the maintenance or stability of the mtDNA can affect its global copy number, but also the relative abundance of different genomic regions or the frequency of illegitimate recombination across repeated sequences. These can be conveniently tested by quantitative PCR (qPCR). Arabidopsis thaliana offers several advantages for studying these processes, because of the extensive collections of mutants, natural accessions and other genetic resources available from stock centers. Here we describe protocols we routinely use to explore changes in mtDNA copy number and relative stoichiometry in Arabidopsis mutants of genes involved in the replication, repair and recombination of the mtDNA.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the LABEX MitoCross [ANR-11-LABX-0057_MITOCROSS] and benefited from a funding managed by the French National Research Agency as part of the “Investments for the future” program. We thank Rokas Kubilinskas for critical reading of the manuscript.
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Schatz-Daas, D., Fertet, A., Lotfi, F., Gualberto, J.M. (2022). Assessment of Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number, Stability, and Repair in Arabidopsis . In: Van Aken, O., Rasmusson, A.G. (eds) Plant Mitochondria. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2363. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1653-6_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1653-6_20
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