Abstract
This study presents evidence, using sequences of ribosomal 16S and COI mtDNA, for the presence of two mitochondrial genomes in Perumytilus purpuratus. This may be considered evidence of doubly uniparental mtDNA inheritance. The presence of the two types of mitochondrial genomes differentiates females from males. The F genome was found in the somatic and gonadal tissues of females and in the somatic tissues of males; the M genome was found in the gonads and mantle of males only. For the mitochondrial 16S region, ten haplotypes were found for the F genome (nucleotide diversity 0.004), and 7 haplotypes for the M genome (nucleotide diversity 0.001), with a distance Dxy of 0.125 and divergence Kxy of 60.33%. For the COI gene 17 haplotypes were found for the F genome (nucleotide diversity 0.009), and 10 haplotypes for the M genome (nucleotide diversity 0.010), with a genetic distance Dxy of 0.184 and divergence Kxy of 99.97%. Our results report the presence of two well-differentiated, sex-specific types of mitochondrial genome (one present in the male gonad, the other in the female gonad), implying the presence of DUI in P. purpuratus. These results indicate that care must be taken in phylogenetic comparisons using mtDNA sequences of P. purpuratus without considering the sex of the individuals.
Highlights
In most animal species, mitochondrial DNA is inherited maternally (Avise et al, 1987; Birky, 1995)
Females are homoplasmic for the F genome and males contain both genomes (F and M), their spermatozoa may be homoplasmic for the M genome (Venetis et al, 2006; Ghiselli et al, 2011)
The phylogenetic reconstruction from both genes distinguishes two clades: one specific to M haplotypes, obtained from males, present in 100% of the gonadal tissue samples for both genes and in somatic tissues for 16S; the other specific to F haplotypes, obtained from female somatic and gonadal tissues and male somatic tissues. This conclusion is supported by high values of consistency and significant genetic divergence, displaying robust separation between female (F) and male (M) haplotypes
Summary
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is inherited maternally (Avise et al, 1987; Birky, 1995). A different inheritance mode has been described in bivalves, known as doubly uniparental inheritance or DUI, (Skibinski et al, 1994; Zouros et al, 1994a; Zouros, 2000, 2013; Passamonti and Ghiselli, 2009; Breton et al, 2007). Among Mytilidae, the DUI mechanism has been well studied in Mytilus (Hoeh et al, 1997; Quesada et al, 1999; Zbawicka et al, 2003) This inheritance is characterized by the presence of two highly divergent mtDNAs, known as F (Female) and M (Male) mitochondrial genomes (Fisher and Skibinski, 1990; Hoeh et al, 1991; Skibinski et al, 1994; Zouros et al, 1994b).
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