Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 15, 2026

Measuring Single-Cell Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number and Heteroplasmy Using Digital Droplet Polymerase Chain Reaction
Published on: July 12, 2022
Extensive mitochondrial heteroplasmy in the neotropical ants of the Ectatomma ruidum complex (Formicidae:
Rubi N Meza-Lázaro1, Chantal Poteaux2, Natalia J Bayona-Vásquez3
1a Colección Nacional de Insectos, Instituto de Biología , Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Circuito Exterior s/n, Ciudad Universitaria , CdMx, México , México.
Abstract:
We assembled mitogenomes from 21 ant workers assigned to four morphospecies (E. ruidum spp. 1-4) and putative hybrids of the Ectatomma ruidum complex (E. ruidum spp. 2x3), and to E. tuberculatum using NGS data. Mitogenomes from specimens of E. ruidum spp. 3, 4 and 2 × 3 had a high proportion of polymorphic sites. We investigated whether polymorphisms in mitogenomes are due to nuclear mt paralogues (numts) or due to the presence of more than one mitogenome within an individual (heteroplasmy). We did not find loss of function signals in polymorphic protein-coding genes, and observed strong evidence for purifying selection in two haplotype-phased genes, which indicate the presence of two functional mitochondrial genomes coexisting within individuals instead of numts. Heteroplasmy due to hybrid paternal leakage is not supported by phylogenetic analyses. Our results reveal the presence of a fast-evolving secondary mitochondrial lineage of uncertain origin in the E. ruidum complex.
Related Concept Videos
Animal Mitochondrial Genetics
Comparing Mitochondrial, Chloroplast, and Prokaryotic Genomes
Export of Mitochondrial and Chloroplast Genes
The Inner Mitochondrial Membrane
Protein Complex Assembly
Many viruses self-assemble into a fully functional unit using the infected host cell to...
Protein Complexes with Interchangeable Parts
The SCF ubiquitin ligase is a protein complex of five individual proteins. This complex attaches ubiquitin to other target proteins to mark them for degradation. In order...

