LE3 .A278 2018

2018

Stewart, Don

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Biology

Biology

Doubly uniparental inheritance (DUI) is an unusual system of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) inheritance in bivalves that allows for both a maternal and a paternal mtDNA lineage to be transmitted to the next generation. Unlike other metazoans that possess strictly maternal inheritance (SMI), in bivalves with DUI, females inherit F-type (female-transmitted) mtDNA, while males inherit both F-type and M-type (male-transmitted) mtDNA. Occasionally, marine bivalves experience a "recombination event,” in which a fragment of the M-type mtDNA gets incorporated into or near the control region of the F-type mtDNA. This creates a newly masculinized mtDNA, which “invades” the male route of transmission. The female mitochondrial genome of Geukensia demissa, a mussel in the family Mytilidae, was aimed to be amplified in two separate fragments; between the cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 gene, and the large subunit ribosomal rRNA gene. The amplification of the genome was conducted by long-range polymerase chain reaction (LR-PCR) and sequenced by Pacific Biosciences Sequencing (Génome Québec, McGill). Sequences were annotated using computer programs Mitos and Geneious. Here, the objective to completely sequence the female mt genome of the marine mussel G. demissa was achieved. This sequence was annotated with uncertainty in the region between the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 gene and the cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 gene. The ultimate goal of this project was to identify features of the control region that could play a role in the mechanisms of doubly uniparental inheritance in bivalves

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:2676