SREL Reprint #2127

Tissue-specific maternal and paternal mitochondrial DNA in the freshwater mussel, Anodonta grandis grandis

Hsiu-Ping Liu1,2 and Jeffry B. Mitton2

1Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802, USA
2Department of Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado, Campus Box 334, Boulder, CO 80309, USA

Introduction: Until recently, inheritance of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in animals was thought to be strictly maternal. Evidence for incidental paternal mtDNA leakage was obtained in hybrid crosses of mice and Drosophila. An unusual pattern of mtDNA inheritance, i.e. double uniparental inheritance, was described in the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, and in the giant floater, Anodonta grandis grandis. Here we report the distribution of maternal and paternal mitochondrial DNA in the giant floater, which differ from those in the blue mussel.

SREL Reprint #2127

Liu, H.-P. and J.B. Mitton. 1995. Tissue-specific maternal and paternal mitochondrial DNA in the freshwater mussel, Anodonta grandis grandis. The Journal of Molluscan Studies 62:393-394.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).