Transmission of mitochondrial mutations and action of purifying selection in Drosophila melanogaster.

ABSTRACT: It is not known how selection affects mutations in the multiple copies of the mitochondrial genome. We transferred cytoplasm between D. melanogaster embryos carrying mitochondrial mutations to create heteroplasmic lines transmitting two mitochondrial genotypes. Increased temperature imposed selection against a temperature-sensitive mutation affecting cytochrome oxidase, driving decreases in the abundance of the mutant genome over successive generations. Selection did not influence the health or fertility of the flies but acted during midoogenesis to influence competition between the genomes. Mitochondria might incur an advantage through selective localization, survival or proliferation, yet timing and insensitivity to park mutation suggest that preferential proliferation underlies selectio

SUBMITTER: Ma H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4091738 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature