Sex wars : conflict between nuclear and mitochondrial genomes to control male reproduction in snails
Le 10 Janvier 2025
11:30 - CEFE - Grande Salle de réunion
patrice david
CEFE, CNRS, Univ Montpellier, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France
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Mitochondria are domesticated procaryotes within eukaryotic cells. However unlike nuclear genes, mitochondrial genomes are usually not transmitted by male gametes, a source of conflict when it comes to decide how much an individual should invest into the male function. I will relate the discovery, in freshwater snails, of mitochondria that suppress male reproduction and turn hermaphrodites into females. This is the first animal case of a cyto-nuclear sex determination mode well known in plants, with which it shares two characteristics : the coexistence of several mitochondrial types causing male sterility, and the presence of specific suppressors in the nuclear genome that restore male fertility. However, the snail system also has unique features such as an exceptional acceleration of mitogenome evolution, resulting in degrees of intraspecific divergence unmatched by any other animal or plant. Finally, the short generation time of this small snail allows us to validate theoretical models by experimental evolution. The very rapid changes in frequency we observed suggest that cyto-nuclear conflicts are indeed very dynamical systems and a great opportunity to observe evolution in real time.
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