Figure 1.

Representative Phenotypes in the Oenothera Chloroplast Mutant Collection.

For details, see text and Table 1.

(A) I-ny, variegated individual with completed sorting-out giving rise to homoplasmic white (mutated) and green (nursery plastome) sectors.

(B) Developmental series of homoplasmic IV-epsilon leaves, showing age-dependent bleaching.

(C) Age-dependent greening and mottled pattern of leaves of mutant I-iota. From left to right: homoplasmic young nearly white leaf, homoplasmic medium-age mottled leaves, and older green leaf. Note that the oldest leaf displays variegation. As a result of a completed sorting-out, the leaf blade is homoplasmic for the nearly regreened I-iota plastome. The margin is homoplasmic for the wild-type chloroplast (indicated by the arrow).

(D) I-tau, growing photoautotrophically in soil as a homoplasmic plant. It displays a reversible bleaching (virescent) phenotype, alternately forming bleached and green leaves. The homoplasmic state of all mutants was confirmed by Illumina deep sequencing. For molecular causes of the mutations, see Table 1.

Bars = 4 cm in (A), (B), and (D). Leaf sizes in (C) from left to right: ∼5, 10, 12, and 20 cm.