Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Far-Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Portovaya 18, 685000 Magadan, Russia.
Biochemistry (Mosc). 2012 May;77(5):518-23. doi: 10.1134/S0006297912050124.
The phenomenon of interspecific hybridization accompanied by transfer of the mitochondrial genome from the northern red-backed vole (Clethrionomys rutilus) to the bank vole (Cl. glareolus) in northeastern Europe is well known already for 25 years. However, the possibility of recombination between homologous segments of maternal and paternal mtDNAs of the voles during fertilization was not previously studied. Analysis of data on variability of nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial gene for cytochrome b in populations of red-backed and bank voles in the area of their sympatry has shown that as a result of interspecific hybridization, the mitochondrial gene pool of bank voles contains not only mtDNA haplotypes of red-backed vole females, but also mtDNA haplotypes of bank voles bearing short nucleotide tracts of red-backed vole mtDNA. This finding supports the hypothesis that an incomplete elimination of red-backed vole paternal mtDNA during the interspecific hybridization between bank vole females and red-backed vole males leads to the gene conversion of bank vole maternal mtDNA tracts by homologous ones of mtDNA of red-backed vole males.
在东北欧，同种杂交伴随着线粒体基因组从北方红背鼠（Clethrionomys rutilus）转移到黑线仓鼠（Cl. glareolus）的现象已经为人所知已有 25 年。然而，此前并没有研究过在受精过程中，鼠类母系和父系 mtDNA 同源片段之间发生重组的可能性。对该地区共存的红背鼠和黑线仓鼠种群中线粒体细胞色素 b 基因核苷酸序列变异性的分析表明，由于种间杂交，黑线仓鼠的线粒体基因库不仅包含了红背鼠雌性的 mtDNA 单倍型，还包含了携带红背鼠 mtDNA 短核苷酸片段的黑线仓鼠 mtDNA 单倍型。这一发现支持了这样一种假设，即在黑线仓鼠雌性与红背鼠雄性的种间杂交过程中，红背鼠父系 mtDNA 不完全消除，导致了同源的红背鼠 mtDNA 对黑线仓鼠母系 mtDNA 片段的基因转换。
