Mitochondrial epigenetics brings new perspectives on doubly uniparental inheritance in bivalves.

Mitochondrial epigenetics, particularly mtDNA methylation, is a flourishing field of research. MtDNA methylation appears to play multiple roles, including regulating mitochondrial transcription, cell metabolism and mitochondrial inheritance. In animals, bivalves with doubly uniparental inheritance (DUI) of mitochondria are the exception to the rule of maternal mitochondrial inheritance since DUI also involve a paternal mtDNA transmitted from the father to sons.

In vitro proliferation of Mytilus edulis male germ cell progenitors.

Our understanding of basic cellular processes has mostly been provided by mammalian cell culture, and by some non-mammalian vertebrate and few invertebrate cell culture models. Developing reliable culture conditions for non-model organisms is essential to allow investigation of more unusual cellular processes. Here, we investigate how cells isolated from different tissues of the marine mussel Mytilus edulis thrive and survive in vitro in the hope of establishing a suitable laboratory model for the investigation of cellular mechanisms specific to these bivalve mollusks.

Validation of the male-specific ORF of the paternally-transmitted mtDNA in Mytilus edulis as a protein-coding gene.

There appears to be an additional set of sex-specific mtDNA-encoded proteins in bivalve species with doubly uniparental mitochondrial inheritance that may be involved in the transmission of the female and male mitogenomes. In the marine mussel Mytilus edulis, the translation of the female-specific open reading frame (F-ORF) was demonstrated but the translation of the male-specific ORF (M-ORF) remains to be shown. Here we validate the male-specific ORF of the paternal mitogenome in M.

A small protein coded within the mitochondrial canonical gene nd4 regulates mitochondrial bioenergetics.

Background: Mitochondria have a central role in cellular functions, aging, and in certain diseases. They possess their own genome, a vestige of their bacterial ancestor. Over the course of evolution, most of the genes of the ancestor have been lost or transferred to the nucleus.