Data from: 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 different asexual lineages have different mitochondrial function phenotypes, likely reflecting heritable variation (that is, the raw material for evolution) for mitochondrial function in P. antipodarum. The discovery of this variation combined with the methods developed here sets the stage to use P. antipodarum to study central evolutionary questions involving mitochondrial function, including whether mitochondrial mutation accumulation influences the maintenance of sexual reproduction in natural populations.负责线粒体功能的蛋白质由两类不同的基因组编码，且二者具有截然不同的遗传模式，这使得除极少数模式系统外，基因型-表型关联的严谨推断难以开展。无性生殖生物为解决上述难题提供了强有力的研究路径：无重组产生的子代可从单一亲本处同时继承核基因组与线粒体基因组。据此，这些子代所继承的线粒体核基因型 (mitonuclear genotype) 与其亲本及同胞的完全一致，而与其他无性生殖谱系的线粒体核基因型存在差异。 本研究以用于探究无性生殖进化后果的模式生物——新西兰淡水螺Potamopyrgus antipodarum的不同无性生殖谱系为对象，对其线粒体功能进行了比较分析。我们的分析在三个生物学组织水平上揭示了不同无性生殖谱系间存在显著的表型变异：线粒体基因组水平、细胞器水平以及个体水平。上述数据表明，不同无性生殖谱系具有各异的线粒体功能表型，这大概率反映了P. antipodarum中线粒体功能存在可遗传变异——即进化的原始材料。 这一变异的发现结合本研究开发的实验方法，为利用P. antipodarum研究涉及线粒体功能的核心进化问题铺平了道路，其中包括线粒体突变积累是否会影响自然种群中有性生殖的维持。