Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Dec 13:4:e2760.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.2760. eCollection 2016.

Pursuing the quest for better understanding the taxonomic distribution of the system of doubly uniparental inheritance of mtDNA

Arthur Gusman  1 , Sophia Lecomte  2 , Donald T Stewart  3 , Marco Passamonti  4 , Sophie Breton  1
Affiliations

Pursuing the quest for better understanding the taxonomic distribution of the system of doubly uniparental inheritance of mtDNA

Arthur Gusman et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

There is only one exception to strict maternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in the animal kingdom: a system named doubly uniparental inheritance (DUI), which is found in several bivalve species. Why and how such a radically different system of mitochondrial transmission evolved in bivalve remains obscure. Obtaining a more complete taxonomic distribution of DUI in the Bivalvia may help to better understand its origin and function. In this study we provide evidence for the presence of sex-linked heteroplasmy (thus the possible presence of DUI) in two bivalve species, i.e., the nuculanoid Yoldia hyperborea(Gould, 1841)and the veneroid Scrobicularia plana(Da Costa,1778), increasing the number of families in which DUI has been found by two. An update on the taxonomic distribution of DUI in the Bivalvia is also presented.

Keywords: Bivalvia; Doubly uniparental inheritance; Mitochondrial DNA; Mitochondrial inheritance; Scrobicularia plana; Yoldia hyperborea.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Bayesian inference majority-rule tree of bivalve cox1partial sequence.
Relationships based on an analysis using the GTR + I + G model. Numbers at each node indicate nodal support.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Bayesian inference majority-rule tree of bivalve cox1partial sequence.
Relationships based on an analysis using the GTR + I + G model. Unionoida M clade. Numbers at each node indicate nodal support.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Bayesian inference majority-rule tree of bivalve cox1partial sequence.
Relationships based on an analysis using the GTR + I + G model. Unionoida F clade. Numbers at each node indicate nodal support.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Bayesian inference majority-rule tree of bivalve cox1partial sequence.
Relationships based on an analysis using the GTR + I + G model. Mytiloida, Nuculanoida and Veneroida, M and F clades. Numbers at each node indicate nodal support.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Alves FA, Beasley CR, Hoeh WR, Da Rocha RM, De Simone LR, Tagliaro CH. Detection of mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy suggests a doubly uniparental inheritance pattern in the mussel Mytella charruana. Revista Brasileira de Biociências. 2012;10(2):176–185.
    1. Beagley CT, Taylor KA, Wolstenholme DR. Gender-associated diverse mitochondrial DNA molecules of the mussel Mytilus californianus. Current Genetics. 1997;31(4):318–324. doi: 10.1007/s002940050211. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bieler R, Mikkelsen PM. Bivalvia—a look at the branches. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 2006;148:223–235. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2006.00255.x. - DOI
    1. Birky CW. The inheritance of genes in mitochondria and chloroplasts: laws, mechanisms, and models. Annual Review of Genetics. 2001;35:125–148. - PubMed
    1. BivAToL: Assembling the Bivalve Tree of Life. 2007. http://www.bivatol.org/index.php/the-project. [21 July 2016]. http://www.bivatol.org/index.php/the-project

LinkOut - more resources