text: One of the main competing models for cpDNA asserts that most cpDNA is linear and participates in homologous recombination and replication structures similar to bacteriophage T4. It has been established that some plants have linear cpDNA, such as maize, and that more still contain complex structures that scientists do not yet understand; however, the predominant view today is that most cpDNA is circular. When the original experiments on cpDNA were performed, scientists did notice linear structures; however, they attributed these linear forms to broken circles. If the branched and complex structures seen in cpDNA experiments are real and not artifacts of concatenated circular DNA or broken circles, then a D-loop mechanism of replication is insufficient to explain how those structures would replicate. At the same time, homologous recombination does not explain the multiple A → G gradients seen in plastomes. This shortcoming is one of the biggest for the linear structure theory.