Paternal Mitochondrial Transmission in Intra-Species Caenorhabditis briggsae Hybrids

To study mitochondrial-nuclear genetic interactions in the nematode Caenorhabditis briggsae, our three laboratories independently created 38 intra-species cytoplasmic-nuclear hybrid (cybrid) lines. Although the cross design combines maternal mitotypes with paternal nuclear genotypes, eight lines (21%) unexpectedly contained paternal mitotypes. All eight share in common ancestry of one of two genetically related strains. This unexpected parallel observation of paternal mitochondrial transmission, undesirable given our intent of creating cybrids, provides a serendipitous experimental model and framework to study the molecular and evolutionary basis of uniparental mitochondrial inheritance.