Significance
Male and female mtDNA: a particularity of some bivalve groups (including
freshwater) having Doubly Uniparental Inheritance (DUI).
In bivalve species with DUI, mitochondria from the males are transferred
from the spermatozoid to the egg during fecundation. Contrary to mtDNA
uniparental organisms, where paternal mitochondria are immediately
eliminated, in DUI bivalves, males specimens retain their father’s
mitochondria in their gonadal tissues, and transmit them to their
offspring. This has been originally coined DUI for marine mussels
(Zouros, Ball, Saavedra, & Freeman, 1994) and firstly detected in
freshwater mussels by Liu, Mitton and Wu (1996). Our eDNA primers also
amplify the 16S male mtDNA fragment. Therefore, we often collect both
male and female mtDNA in our samples.