Genetic variation for mitochondrial function in the New Zealand freshwater snail Potamopyrgus antipodarum

The proteins responsible for mitochondrial function are encoded by two different genomes with distinct inheritance regimes, rendering rigorous inference of genotype–phenotype connections intractable for all but a few model systems. Asexual organisms provide a powerful means to address these challenges because offspring produced without recombination inherit both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes from a single parent. As such, these offspring inherit mitonuclear genotypes that are identical to the mitonuclear genotypes of their parents and siblings and different from those of other asexual lineages. Here, we compared mitochondrial function across distinct asexual lineages of Potamopyrgus antipodarum, a New Zealand freshwater snail model for understanding the evolutionary consequences of asexuality. Our analyses revealed substantial phenotypic variation across asexual lineages at three levels of biological organization: mitogenomic, organellar, and organismal. These data demonstrate that ...

负责线粒体功能的蛋白质由两个具有不同遗传机制的基因组编码，这使得基因型-表型关联的严谨推断在除少数模型系统外的所有情况下均难以实现。无性生物为应对这些挑战提供了有力手段，因为无重组产生的后代会从单亲继承核基因组和线粒体基因组。因此，这些后代继承的核质基因型（mitonuclear genotypes）与其亲本和同胞的核质基因型完全一致，而与其他无性谱系的核质基因型不同。在此，我们比较了新西兰淡水螺Potamopyrgus antipodarum不同无性谱系的线粒体功能，该物种是理解无性生殖进化后果的模型生物。我们的分析揭示了无性谱系在三个生物组织水平（线粒体基因组水平、细胞器水平和有机体水平）上存在显著的表型变异。这些数据表明...