Molecular organization and heredity of the mitochondrial genome in Basidiomycetes

The studies on basidiomycete mitochondrial genomes provide numerous amounts of information with important repercussions on fundamental as well as aplied fields of mycology. This information is particularly interesting to furnish performant molecular markers (RFLPs) which allow a precise characterization of species and, within a species, constitute strain-specific markers. Moreover, these markers will be useful to correlate sequences of the mitochondrial genome with physiologically important and, at this time, seemingly unrelated functions. The analysis of the complex mitochondrial heredity of basidiomycetes will allow a better understanding of the transmission of mitochondria in eukaryotic life cycles and especially a characterization of the molecular mechanisms involved in mitochondria selection after plasmogamy in these somatogamic species and, certainly, in other eukaryotic cells.