Plant cells contain two double membrane bound organelles, plastids and mitochondria, that contain their own genomes. There is a very large variation in the sizes of mitochondrial genomes in higher plants, while the plastid genome remains relatively uniform across different species. One of the curious features of the organelle DNA is that it exists in a high copy number per mitochondria or chloroplast, which varies greatly in different tissues during plant development. The variations in copy number, morphology and genomic content reflect the diversity in organelle functions. The link between the metabolic needs of a cell and the capacity of mitochondria and chloroplasts to fulfill this demand is thought to act as a selective force on the number of organelles and genome copies per organelle. However, it is not yet clear how the activities of mitochondria and chloroplasts are coordinated in response to cellular and environmental cues. The relationship between genome copy number variation and the mechanism(s) by which the genomes are maintained through different developmental stages are yet to be fully understood. This Special Issue has several contributions that address current knowledge of higher plant organelle DNA. Here we briefly introduce these articles that discuss the importance of different aspects of the organelle genome in higher plants.
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