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Reversing mother's curse: selection on male mitochondrial fitness effects

Michael J Wade1, Yaniv Brandvain

  • 1Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, 47405, USA. mjwade@indiana.edu

Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution
|January 22, 2009
PubMed

Insights

Mitochondria can evolve to affect male traits despite only being inherited maternally. Inbreeding and kin selection enable mitochondria to impact male fertility and viability, challenging previous assumptions.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Genetics
  • Cell Biology

Background:

  • Organelles and endosymbionts, like mitochondria, are typically inherited maternally.
  • This maternal inheritance was thought to prevent selection on traits affecting male viability and fertility.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate mechanisms allowing mitochondria to be selected for effects on male viability and fertility.
  • To challenge the dogma that paternal transmission is required for such selection.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical modeling exploring the effects of inbreeding and kin selection.
  • Analysis of how these mechanisms associate mitochondrial traits with male fitness.

Main Results:

  • Inbreeding allows selection on male fertility traits by linking them to mitochondrial lineages.
  • Kin selection enables selection on male viability traits through indirect fitness benefits to sisters.
  • Conditions exist where harmful-to-female mitochondrial traits can spread.

Conclusions:

  • Mitochondrial evolution is not solely constrained by maternal inheritance.
  • Inbreeding and kin selection are key evolutionary forces shaping mitochondrial genomes.
  • These findings have implications for understanding organelle evolution, genomic conflict, and the evolution of harmful traits.

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