Intergenomic conflict and the evolution of uniparental inheritance of mitochondria

为什么所有哺乳动物的男性精子细胞在受精后都会破坏自己的线粒体？一种主要的进化理论--冲突假说--旨在回答这个问题。这个论点是这样的。如果一个生物体包含来自父母双方的线粒体，那么每个线粒体谱系都会被选为“军备竞赛”，以比另一个谱系复制得更快，这可能会让生物体付出高昂的代价。线粒体的单亲遗传防止了这种进化的军备竞赛。听起来像是真的？是。它经过测试了吗？不是的。该项目将首次尝试检验这一耐人寻味的假说。自私线粒体进化的实验证据将为这一重大进化理论提供坚实的支持。

Why do all mammalian male sperm cells destroy their own mitochondria after fertilisation? A major evolutionary theory, the conflict hypothesis, aims to answer this question. The argument goes as follows. If an organism were to contain mitochondria from both parents, each mitochondrial lineage would be selected in an “arms race” to replicate faster than the other lineage, and this would likely be costly to the organism. Uniparental inheritance of mitochondria prevents such evolutionary arms race. Sounds plausible? Yes. Has it been tested? No. This project will be the first attempt to test this intriguing hypothesis. Experimental evidence for the evolution of selfish mitochondria would provide solid support for this major evolutionary theory.