Lost in the zygote: the dilution of paternal mtDNA upon fertilization

@article{Wolff2008LostIT,
  title={Lost in the zygote: the dilution of paternal mtDNA upon fertilization},
  author={Jonci Nikolai Wolff and Neil J. Gemmell},
  journal={Heredity},
  year={2008},
  volume={101},
  pages={429-434}
}
The mechanisms by which paternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) (paternal leakage) and, subsequently, recombination of mtDNA are prevented vary in a species-specific manner with one mechanism in common: paternally derived mtDNA is assumed to be vastly outnumbered by maternal mtDNA in the zygote. To date, this dilution effect has only been described for two mammalian species, human and mouse. Here, we estimate the mtDNA content of chinook salmon oocytes to evaluate the dilution effect… 
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Extensive paternal mtDNA leakage in natural populations of Drosophila melanogaster

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The results confirm the presence of a mitochondrial bottleneck in fish, and show that segregation of mtDNA variation is effectively complete by the end of oogenesis, and suggest the mechanism underlying the mtDNA bottleneck is conserved in these distant vertebrates both in terms of it magnitude and timing.

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Key recent findings are reviewed, ways forward are suggested that will hopefully advance the understanding of the role of mtDNA in human disease, and how the bottleneck is controlled during development are suggested.

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It is shown how it is possible to account for recombination and heteroplasmy in evolutionary and population analyses, but that accurate estimates of the frequencies of biparental inheritance and recombination are needed.

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A novel strategy to selectively amplify mtDNA and exclude the amplification of numt sequence is presented using a combination of dilution series and nested rolling circle amplification (RCA) and successfully applied to de novo sequence the mtDNA of the Black Field Cricket Teleogryllus commodus, a species known to contain numts.

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