title: A mitochondrial genome with a reversed transmission route in the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis.
abstract: Species of the marine mussel genus Mytilus are known to contain two mitochondrial genomes, one transmitted maternally (the F genome) and the other paternally (the M genome). The two genomes have diverged by more than 20% in DNA sequence. Here we present the complete sequence of a third genome, genome C, which we found in the sperm of a Mytilus galloprovincialis male. The coding part of the new genome resembles in sequence the F genome, from which it differs by about 2% on average, but differs from the M genome by as much as the F from the M. Its major control region (CR) is more than three times larger than that of the F or the M genome and consists of repeated sequence domains of the CR of the M genome flanked by domains of the CR of the F genome. We present a sequence of events that reconstruct most parsimoniously the derivation of the C genome from the F and M genomes. The sequence consists of a duplication of CR elements of the M genome and subsequent insertion of these tandemly repeated elements in the F genome by recombination. The fact that the C genome was found as the only mitochondrial genome in the sperm of the male from which it was extracted suggests that it is transmitted paternally.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis, 15701 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Constantinos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Venetis
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Theologidis
authors.forename: Eleftherios
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Zouros
authors.forename: George C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Rodakis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D016678:Genome; D008297:Male; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D049878:Mytilus / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial