An unusual case of gender-associated mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy: the mytilid Musculista senhousia (Mollusca Bivalvia).

ABSTRACT:

Background

Doubly Uniparental Inheritance (DUI) represents the most outstanding exception to matrilinear inheritance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), typical of Metazoa. In a few bivalve mollusks, two sex-linked mtDNAs (the so-called M and F) are inherited in a peculiar way: both daughters and sons receive their F from the mother, whereas sons inherit M from the father (males do not transmit F to their progeny). This realizes a double mechanism of transmission, in which M and F mtDNAs are inherited uniparentally. DUI systems represent a unique experimental model for testing the evolutionary mechanisms that apply to mitochondrial genomes and their transmission patterns as well as to mtDNA recombination.

Results

A new case of DUI is described in Musculista senhousia (Mollusca: Bi

SUBMITTER: Passamonti M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1963476 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature