Selfish drive can trump function when animal mitochondrial genomes compete.

ABSTRACT: Mitochondrial genomes compete for transmission from mother to progeny. We explored this competition by introducing a second genome into Drosophila melanogaster to follow transmission. Competitions between closely related genomes favored those functional in electron transport, resulting in a host-beneficial purifying selection. In contrast, matchups between distantly related genomes often favored those with negligible, negative or lethal consequences, indicating selfish selection. Exhibiting powerful selfish selection, a genome carrying a detrimental mutation displaced a complementing genome, leading to population death after several generations. In a different pairing, opposing selfish and purifying selection counterbalanced to give stable transmission of two genomes. Sequencing of recombi

SUBMITTER: Ma H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4925267 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature