Transmission and recombination of chloroplast genes in asexual crosses of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii . 2. Comparisons with observations of sexual diploids

Patterns of biparental chloroplast gene transmission in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii diploids produced by polyethylene glycol (PEG) fusion were found to be similar to those seen in sexual diploids (Van Winkle-Swift and Birky 1978). Examination of the phenotypes of diploid clones showed that the PEG diploids produced a heterogeneous set of allelic frequencies. The similarity of results obtained in sexual and PEG diploids supports the hypothesis that the mechanisms operating during biparental chloroplast gene inheritance in PEG diploids are identical to those in sexual diploids.