MBE Advance Access published online on September 1, 2004
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msh244
Molecular Biology and Evolution © Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution 2004; all rights reserved
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 Centre for the Study of Evolution, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: gwenael.piganeau{at}obs-banyuls.fr.
Recombination in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) remains a controversial topic. Here we present a survey of 279 animal mtDNA datasets, of which 12 were from asexual species. Using four separate tests we show that there is widespread evidence of recombination; for one test as many as 14.2% of the datasets reject a model of clonal inheritance and in several datasets, including primates, the recombinants can be identified visually. We show that none of the tests give significant results for obligate clonal species (apomictic parthogens) and that the sexual species show significantly greater evidence of recombination than asexuals. For some datasets, such as Macaca nemestrina, additional datasets suggest that the recombinants are not artifacts. For others it cannot be determined whether the recombinants are real or produced by laboratory error. Either way the results have important implications for how mtDNA is sequenced and used.
Research Article
A Broad Survey of Recombination in Animal Mitochondrial
Abstract 
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  C. M. Barr, S. R. Keller, P. K. Ingvarsson, D. B. Sloan, and D. R. Taylor Variation in Mutation Rate and Polymorphism Among Mitochondrial Genes of Silene vulgaris Mol. Biol. Evol., August 1, 2007; 24(8): 1783 - 1791. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. F. Boni, D. Posada, and M. W. Feldman An Exact Nonparametric Method for Inferring Mosaic Structure in Sequence Triplets Genetics, June 1, 2007; 176(2): 1035 - 1047. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. Tang and B. C. Hyman Mitochondrial Genome Haplotype Hypervariation Within the Isopod Parasitic Nematode Thaumamermis cosgrovei Genetics, June 1, 2007; 176(2): 1139 - 1150. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 D. Rubinoff, S. Cameron, and K. Will A Genomic Perspective on the Shortcomings of Mitochondrial DNA for "Barcoding" Identification J. Hered., November 1, 2006; 97(6): 581 - 594. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. Burzynski, M. Zbawicka, D. O. F. Skibinski, and R. Wenne Doubly Uniparental Inheritance Is Associated With High Polymorphism for Rearranged and Recombinant Control Region Haplotypes in Baltic Mytilus trossulus Genetics, November 1, 2006; 174(3): 1081 - 1094. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. Charlesworth and A. Eyre-Walker The Rate of Adaptive Evolution in Enteric Bacteria Mol. Biol. Evol., July 1, 2006; 23(7): 1348 - 1356. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. C. Bruen, H. Philippe, and D. Bryant A Simple and Robust Statistical Test for Detecting the Presence of Recombination Genetics, April 1, 2006; 172(4): 2665 - 2681. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 N. Galtier, D. Enard, Y. Radondy, E. Bazin, and K. Belkhir Mutation hot spots in mammalian mitochondrial DNA Genome Res., February 1, 2006; 16(2): 215 - 222. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. D. Tsaousis, D. P. Martin, E. D. Ladoukakis, D. Posada, and E. Zouros Widespread Recombination in Published Animal mtDNA Sequences Mol. Biol. Evol., April 1, 2005; 22(4): 925 - 933. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|