MBE Advance Access published online on April 22, 2009
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msp085
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Letter |
Is Interlineage Recombination Responsible for Low Divergence of Mitochondrial nad3 Genes in Mytilus galloprovincialis?
ski
mietanka
Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Department of Genetics and Marine Biotechnology, Powsta
ców Warszawy 55, 81-712 Sopot, Poland
Corresponding author: Artur Burzy
ski, email: aburzynski{at}iopan.gda.pl, phone: 48587311763, fax: 48587311863
Received for publication February 13, 2009. Revision received April 8, 2009. Accepted for publication April 14, 2009.
The existence of mtDNA recombination in animals has been confirmed by several case studies. Still, for Mytilus mussels possessing two divergent mitochondrial genomes (M and F), which can recombine, no recombination between coding sequences of highly diverged M and F genomes has been shown. Based on the full sequences of both genomes, it has been suggested that particularly low divergence observed within the mitochondrial nad3 gene of the Mytilus galloprovincialis mussel may be caused by its exceptionally low evolutionary rate. Here we contribute a new pair of mitochondrial genomes typical for M. galloprovincialis and show that this low divergence is not a sign of evolutionary conservation but is rather caused by the acquisition of a F-related sequence by the published M genome of M. galloprovincialis. The most likely scenario for this apparent mtDNA coding region recombination case is an assembly artifact.
Key Words: mtDNA recombination DUI assembly errors mitogenomics