Expanding the Search for Sperm Transmission Elements in the Mitochondrial Genomes of Bivalve Mollusks
Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
MDPI
Materia
Mitochondrial DNA inheritance Sperm transmission elements Bivalves DUI
Date
2021-08-05Referencia bibliográfica
Stewart, D.T... [et al.]. Expanding the Search for Sperm Transmission Elements in the Mitochondrial Genomes of Bivalve Mollusks. Genes 2021, 12, 1211. [https://doi.org/10.3390/genes12081211]
Sponsorship
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) 217175 435656; European Commission 713750; Region Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur; French National Research Agency (ANR) ANR- 11-IDEX-0001-02 NSERC CGS-D award; Killam Predoctoral Scholarship; NS Graduate Scholarship; Harrison McCain Visiting Professorship Award at Acadia University from the Harrison McCain FoundationAbstract
Doubly uniparental inheritance (DUI) of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in bivalve mollusks
is one of the most notable departures from the paradigm of strict maternal inheritance of mtDNA
among metazoans. Recently, work on the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis suggested
that a nucleotide motif in the control region of this species, known as the sperm transmission element
(STE), helps protect male-transmitted mitochondria from destruction during spermatogenesis. Subsequent
studies found similar, yet divergent, STE motifs in other marine mussels. Here, we extend the
in silico search for mtDNA signatures resembling known STEs. This search is carried out for the large
unassigned regions of 157 complete mitochondrial genomes from within the Mytiloida, Veneroida,
Unionoida, and Ostreoida bivalve orders. Based on a sliding window approach, we present evidence
that there are additional putative STE signatures in the large unassigned regions of several marine
clams and freshwater mussels with DUI. We discuss the implications of this finding for interpreting
the origin of doubly uniparental inheritance in ancestral bivalve mollusks, as well as potential future
in vitro and in silico studies that could further refine our understanding of the early evolution of this
unusual system of mtDNA inheritance.