Mitochondrial DNA: Fate of the Paternal Mitochondrial Genome

Jim Cummins, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

Published online: January 2006

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0006165

Elimination of the paternal mitochondrial deoxyribonucleic acid among most eukaryotic organisms is achieved by a diverse array of species- and strain-specific mechanisms that help to ensure homoplasmy (a single type of genome), probably to suppress the possibility of invasion of selfish genetic elements. This may reflect the outcome of hierarchical selection pressures on multiple genomes.

Keywords: mitochondrial DNA; fertilization; embryogenesis; ubiquitin; prohibitin

 References
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 Further Reading
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    von der Schulenburg, et al. (2002) History of infection with different male-killing bacteria in the two-spot ladybird beetle Adalia bipunctata revealed through mitochondrial DNA sequence analysis. Genetics 160: 1075–1086.
    Sutovsky P, Terada Y and Schatten G (2001) Ubiquitin-based sperm assay for the diagnosis of male factor infertility. Human Reproduction 16: 250–258.
    Sutovsky P, Thompson WE, Ramalho-Santos J and Schatten G (2000) Prohibitin is the ubiquitinated substrate in mammalian sperm mitochondria: possible roles in the regulation of mitochondrial inheritance and sperm quality control. Molecular Biology of the Cell 11: 521a.
    Swanson WJ and Vacquier VD (2002) The rapid evolution of reproductive proteins. Nature Reviews Genetics 3: 137–144.

Related Sub-Topics:

Evolutionary Genomics | Evolution: Theories and Ideas | Human Evolution | Gene and Genome Structure and Organisation | DNA Structure and Function | Nonchromosomal DNA
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Article Title: Mitochondrial DNA: Fate of the Paternal Mitochondrial Genome
 
How to Cite close
Cummins, Jim(Jan 2006) Mitochondrial DNA: Fate of the Paternal Mitochondrial Genome. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0006165]