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Maternal inheritance of mitochondria: multipolarity, multiallelism and hierarchical transmission of mitochondrial DNA in the true slime mold Physarum polycephalum

  • JPR Symposium
  • Cytoplasmic inheritance
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Abstract

Direct evidence of digestion of paternal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been found in the true slime mold Physarum polycephalum. This is the first report on the selective digestion of mtDNA inside the zygote, and is striking evidence for the mechanism of maternal inheritance of mitochondria. Moreover, two mitochondrial nuclease activities were detected in this organism as candidates for the nucleases responsible for selective digestion of mtDNA. In the true slime mold, there is an additional feature of the uniparental inheritance of mitochondria. Although mitochondria are believed to be inherited from the maternal lineage in nearly all eukaryotes, the mating types of the true slime mold P. polycephalum is not restricted to two: there are three mating loci—matA, matB, and matC—and these loci have 16, 15, and 3 alleles, respectively. Interestingly, the transmission patterns of mtDNA are determined by the matA locus, in a hierarchical fashion (matA hierarchy) as follows: matA7 > matA2 > matA11 > matA12 > matA15/matA16 > matA1 > matA6. The strain possessing the higher status of matA would be the mtDNA donor in crosses. Furthermore, we have found that some crosses showed biparental inheritance of mitochondria. This review describes the phenomenon of hierarchical transmission of mtDNA in true slime molds, and discusses the presumed molecular mechanism of maternal and biparental inheritance.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Tsuneyoshi Kuroiwa for his thoughtful suggestions, generous support and encouragement. We also would like to thank Dr. J. Mark Cock for checking our manuscript. This study was supported by grants for Scientific Research in Priority Areas (no. 13440246, no. 15440246, and 20440123 to S.K.) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.

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  1. Department of Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, Bldg. FSB-601, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8562, Japan

    Yohsuke Moriyama & Shigeyuki Kawano

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  1. Yohsuke Moriyama
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  2. Shigeyuki Kawano
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Correspondence to Yohsuke Moriyama or Shigeyuki Kawano.

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Moriyama, Y., Kawano, S. Maternal inheritance of mitochondria: multipolarity, multiallelism and hierarchical transmission of mitochondrial DNA in the true slime mold Physarum polycephalum . J Plant Res 123, 139–148 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-009-0298-5

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