title: Heteroplasmy of mitochondrial DNA in the ophiuroid Astrobrachion constrictum.
abstract: We demonstrate the presence of mitochondrial heteroplasmy for the cytochrome oxidase I (COI) gene of the brittle star (Astrobrachion constrictum). One of the 117 individuals analyzed contained two distinct single-strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) haplotypes differing by two substitutions; another showed sequence evidence for heteroplasmy. We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) cloning, SSCP, and sequencing of a 480 bp region of the 5' end of COI to isolate and characterize these haplotypes. This is the first properly substantiated case of heteroplasmy in an echinoderm species and may have arisen from paternal leakage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Steel
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Trewick
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Wallis
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004247:DNA; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013215:Starfish / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D004247:DNA