Meusel M S, Moritz R F
Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Natal, Republic of South Africa.
Curr Genet. 1993 Dec;24(6):539-43. doi: 10.1007/BF00351719.
Strict maternal inheritance of mitochondrial (mt) DNA is believed to be the rule in most eukaryotic organisms because of exclusion of paternal mitochondria from the egg cytoplasm during fertilization. In honeybees, polyspermic fertilization occurs, and many spermatozoa, including their mitochondria-rich flagellum, can completely penetrate the egg, thus allowing for a possibly high paternal leakage. In order to identify paternal mtDNA in honeybee eggs, restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) of different subspecies were used. Total DNA extracts of different developmental stages of an Apis mellifera carnica x Apis mellifera capensis hybrid brood were tested with a radioactively-labelled diagnostic mtDNA probe. Densitograms of autoradiographs indicated that the male contribution represents up to 27% of the total mitochondrial DNA in the fertilized eggs 12 h after oviposition. In subsequent developmental stages the portion of paternal mtDNA slowly decreased until hatching of the larvae when only traces were found. Although rapid disintegration of paternal mtDNA does not occur, the initially high paternal mitochondrial contribution is not maintained in the adult animal.
由于在受精过程中父本线粒体被排除在卵细胞细胞质之外，线粒体（mt）DNA严格的母系遗传被认为是大多数真核生物的规律。在蜜蜂中，会发生多精受精，许多精子，包括其富含线粒体的鞭毛，都能完全穿透卵子，从而可能导致较高的父本线粒体DNA渗漏。为了鉴定蜜蜂卵子中的父本mtDNA，使用了不同亚种的限制性片段长度多态性（RFLP）。用放射性标记的诊断性mtDNA探针检测了意大利蜜蜂×海角蜜蜂杂交蜂群不同发育阶段的总DNA提取物。放射自显影片的密度计分析表明，在产卵后12小时的受精卵中，父本的贡献占线粒体DNA总量的27%。在随后的发育阶段，父本mtDNA的比例缓慢下降，直到幼虫孵化时仅发现微量。虽然父本mtDNA不会迅速分解，但在成年动物中，最初较高的父本线粒体贡献并未维持。
