mtDNA inheritance in Echinoderms

[Jim Cummins]

In article <970718.103812.CDT.SHERKE at LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU>,
SHERKE at LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU ("Scott W. Herke") wrote:

> Jim Cummins asked: Is mtDNA inheritance in echinoderms maternal, paternal, or
>                    mixed?

>     I don't think that anyone has critically examined that question for
> echinoderms in particular.
 
According to Nick Palumbi of Harvard (ex Hawaii) heteroplasmy is rare so
mixed parentage is unlikely.

>     However, there is a growing literature of paternal inheritance in some
> groups.  For instance, check out the following reference:
> 
> "Male-dependent Doubly Uniparental Inheritance of Mitochondrial DNA and
Female-
> dependent Sex-ratio in the Mussel Mytilus galloprovicialis" by Carlos
> Saavedra, Maria-Isabel Reyero, and Eleftherios Zouros in GENETICS
145:1073-1082
> (April, 1997).

The following references may help.

 Anderson WA (1968): Structure and fate of the paternal mitochondrion
during early embryogenesis of Paracentrotus lividus. Journal of
Ultrastructure Research; 24: 311-321.

This demonstrated destruction of the sperm mitochondrion.

Anderson WA, Perotti ME (1975): An ultracytochemical study of the
respiratory potency, integrity, and fate of the sea urchin sperm
mitochondria during early embryogenesis. J Cell Biol; 66: 367-76.

Conversely, this found persistence and high levels of metabolic activity
(cytochrome C) up to 8-cells.

Birky CW (1995): Uniparental inheritance of mitochondrial and chloroplast
genes: mechanisms and evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, USA; 92: 11331-11338. 

This is the most authoritative wide-ranging review I can find.   Birky
himself doesn't know about inheritance in Echinoderms.  

BTW inheritance is paternal in some conifers.

-- 
URL http://numbat.murdoch.edu.au/spermatology/spermhp.html