Paternal transmission of mitochondrial DNA as an integral part of mitochondrial inheritance in metapopulations of Drosophila simulans.

ABSTRACT: Maternal inheritance is one of the hallmarks of animal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and central to its success as a molecular marker. This mode of inheritance and subsequent lack of heterologous recombination allows us to retrace evolutionary relationships unambiguously down the matriline and without the confounding effects of recombinant genetic information. Accumulating evidence of biparental inheritance of mtDNA (paternal leakage), however, challenges our current understanding of how this molecule is inherited. Here, using Drosophila simulans collected from an East African metapopulation exhibiting recurring mitochondrial heteroplasmy, we conducted single fly matings and screened F1 offspring for the presence of paternal mtDNA using allele-specific PCR assays (AS-PCR). In all, 27 out of 40

SUBMITTER: Wolff JN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3522233 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature