High incidence of heteroplasmy in the mtDNA of a natural population of the spider crab Maja brachydactyla.

ABSTRACT: Mitochondria are mostly inherited by maternal via, that is, only mitochondria from eggs are retained in the embryos. However, this general assumption of uniparentally transmitted, homoplasmic and non-recombining mitochondrial genomes is becoming more and more controversial. The presence of different sequences of mtDNA within a cell or individual, known as heteroplasmy, is increasingly reported in several taxon of animals, such as molluscs, arthropods and vertebrates. In this work, a considerable frequency of heteroplasmy were detected in the COI and 16S genes of the spider crab Maja brachydactyla, possibly associated to hybridisation with the congeneric species Maja squinado. This finding is a fact to keep in mind before addressing molecular analyses based on mitochondrial markers, since t

SUBMITTER: Rodriguez-Pena E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7082002 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature