Expression of the Pacific oyster mitochondrial genome: Variation among loci and evidence for regulation by nuclear-cytoplasmic interaction

Curole, J. P., E. Meyer, D. T. Manahan and D. Hedgecock. 2009. Expression of the Pacific oyster mitochondrial genome: Variation among loci and evidence for regulation by nuclear-cytoplasmic interaction. Biological Bulletin 218:122-131.

In this paper, an outgrowth of the transcriptome study (Hedgecock et al 2007, below), we focused on the expression of genes in the oyster mitochondrial genome. We showed that mitochondrial genes, despite being transcribed as a unit, have very different levels of expression (i.e. abundances of messenger RNA vary by orders of magnitude). We also provided evidence that this variation in mitochondrial gene expression depends in part on the nuclear genotype. Such nuclear-cytoplasmic interactions may underlie the significant differences that we often see between reciprocal hybrids (i.e. hybrid AB ≠ hybrid BA), even though both hybrids have, in principle, have very similar nuclear genes. Hedgecock and Davis (2007) provided substantial evidence that reciprocal differences are a significant component of yield variance. This work was supported by grants from the USDA and the NSF.