Rapidly evolving mitochondrial genome and directional selection in mitochondrial genes in the parasitic wasp nasonia (hymenoptera: pteromalidae).

ABSTRACT: We sequenced the nearly complete mtDNA of 3 species of parasitic wasps, Nasonia vitripennis (2 strains), Nasonia giraulti, and Nasonia longicornis, including all 13 protein-coding genes and the 2 rRNAs, and found unusual patterns of mitochondrial evolution. The Nasonia mtDNA has a unique gene order compared with other insect mtDNAs due to multiple rearrangements. The mtDNAs of these wasps also show nucleotide substitution rates over 30 times faster than nuclear protein-coding genes, indicating among the highest substitution rates found in animal mitochondria (normally <10 times faster). A McDonald and Kreitman test shows that the between-species frequency of fixed replacement sites relative to silent sites is significantly higher compared with within-species polymorphisms in 2 mitochondria

SUBMITTER: Oliveira DC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2727384 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature