bims-humivi Biomed News
on Human mito-nuclear genetic interplay
Issue of 2026–04–19
two papers selected by
Mariangela Santorsola, Università di Pavia
  1. Sex-biased dispersal drives Mito-Nuclear Discordance in simulated populations.
  2. Mitochondrial-Nuclear Interactions, Co-Transcription, and Adaptive Evolution in Cytoplasmic Male Sterility.
  1. J Hered. 2026 Apr 16. pii: esag018. [Epub ahead of print]
    Sex-biased dispersal drives Mito-Nuclear Discordance in simulated populations.
    Francesco Giannelli, Joan Ferrer Obiol, Emiliano Trucchi.
      Reconstructing the evolutionary dynamics of natural populations requires an understanding of the geographical distribution of nuclear and mitochondrial genetic diversity. The analysis of these two genetic markers often reveals discordant patterns (mito-nuclear discordance) that can arise simply as a consequence of their different effective population sizes (Ne). Species-specific sex-biased dispersal may also contribute to the mito-nuclear discordance observed in natural populations. However, the relative contribution of genetic drift versus sex-biased dispersal in driving mito-nuclear discordance remains insufficiently evaluated. Here, we use forward genetic simulations to address this knowledge gap. Our findings support the baseline level of mito-nuclear discordance arising from different Ne, but show that this discordance is magnified by sex-biased dispersal. We demonstrate that female-biased dispersal leads to a marked spatial mismatch between mitochondrial and nuclear diversity across the simulated populations, thereby reducing the spatial concordance between the two markers. Conversely, our simulations indicate that even pronounced male-biased dispersal produces only minor effects on the concordance in the spatial distribution of the mitochondrial and nuclear markers. Our results suggest that mito-nuclear discordance may be particularly frequent in taxa in which female-biased dispersal is predominant, like birds, and underscore the importance of integrating nuclear and mitochondrial genomes, as well as the impact of sex-biased dispersal, for accurately interpreting patterns of genetic diversity and reconstructing evolutionary histories.
    Keywords:  Mito-nuclear discordance; Slim; forward genetic simulations; sex-biased dispersal
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esag018
  2. Plant Cell Environ. 2026 Apr 12.
    Mitochondrial-Nuclear Interactions, Co-Transcription, and Adaptive Evolution in Cytoplasmic Male Sterility.
    Peilin Wang, Youxiong Que, Rui Zhang.
      Prokaryotic genomes are compact and are commonly organised into operons that generate polycistronic transcripts. Plant mitochondrial genomes preserve several prokaryote-like expression features, including frequent polycistronic transcription and extensive post-transcriptional processing. At the same time, frequent rearrangement and recombination in plant mitochondria can create novel open reading frames, some of which cause cytoplasmic male sterility by perturbing mitochondrial function during pollen development. A recurring observation across species is that many sterility-associated open reading frames are co-transcribed in tandem with neighbouring mitochondrial genes, generating characteristic chimeric or extended transcripts that become key targets of nuclear fertility restorer genes. In this review, we synthesise co-transcription patterns of sterility-associated genes in two monocots (rice and maize) and two dicots (oilseed rape and sunflower), and outline how representative restorer genes recognise, cleave, destabilise, or translationally block the corresponding co-transcripts. Building on operon concepts, we discuss how co-transcription may shape transcript abundance, processing, and coupling to retrograde signalling. Finally, we summarise evidence linking sterility gene activity to reactive oxygen species homoeostasis and propose testable hypotheses for how these mitochondrial-nuclear interactions may influence plant adaptation and evolution.
    Keywords:  CMS; adaptive evolution; co‐transcription; mitochondria; prokaryotic operon model
    DOI:  https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.70526
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