Päckert Martin, Giacalone Gabriele, Lo Valvo Mario, Kehlmaier Christian
Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen, Dresden, Germany.
Cooperativa Silene, Palermo, Italy.
Mitochondrial DNA B Resour. 2019 Oct 26;4(2):3809-3812. doi: 10.1080/23802359.2019.1682477.
Mitochondrial heteroplasmy is the result from biparental transmission of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to the offspring. In such rare cases, maternal and paternal mtDNA is present in the same individual. Though recent studies suggested that mtDNA heteroplasmy might be more common than previously anticipated, that phenomenon is still poorly documented and was mostly detected in case studies on hybrid populations. The Italian sparrow, is a homoploid hybrid form that occurs all across the Italian Peninsula mostly under strict absence of either of its parent species, the house sparrow () and the Spanish sparrow (). In this study, we document a new case of mitochondrial heteroplasmy from two island populations of (Ustica and Lipari). Our analysis was based on the mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 2 (ND2) that allows for a clear distinction between mitochondrial lineages of the two parental species. We amplified and sequenced the mitochondrial ND2 gene with specifically designed primer combinations for each of the two parental species. In two of our study populations, a single individual carried two different ND2 haplotypes from each of the two parental lineages. These findings contribute to current knowledge on the still poorly documented phenomenon of paternal leakage in vertebrates.
线粒体异质性是线粒体DNA（mtDNA）双亲传递给后代的结果。在这种罕见情况下，母本和父本的mtDNA存在于同一个体中。尽管最近的研究表明mtDNA异质性可能比之前预期的更为普遍，但该现象的记录仍然很少，且大多是在杂交种群的案例研究中检测到的。意大利麻雀是一种同倍体杂交形式，主要在其亲本物种家麻雀（Passer domesticus）和西班牙麻雀（Passer hispaniolensis）均严格不存在的情况下出现在整个意大利半岛。在本研究中，我们记录了来自意大利麻雀（Passer italiae）两个岛屿种群（乌斯蒂卡岛和利帕里岛）的一个线粒体异质性新案例。我们的分析基于线粒体烟酰胺腺嘌呤二核苷酸脱氢酶亚基2（ND2），它能够清晰区分两个亲本物种的线粒体谱系。我们使用针对两个亲本物种各自专门设计的引物组合，扩增并测序了线粒体ND2基因。在我们的两个研究种群中，有一个个体携带了来自两个亲本谱系的两种不同的ND2单倍型。这些发现为目前关于脊椎动物中仍记录很少的父本渗漏现象的知识做出了贡献。
