Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP140100560

Funding Activity

Website
http://dataportal.arc.gov.au/NCGP/Web/Grant/Grant/DP140100560

Funding Status
Closed

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Funded Activity Summary

Intergenomic conflict and the evolution of uniparental inheritance of mitochondria. 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.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2014

End Date: 31-12-2016

Funding Scheme: Discovery Projects

Funding Amount: $358,000.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Evolutionary Biology not elsewhere classified | Population, Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics | Evolutionary Biology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences |

Other Keywords

Evolutionary Biology | Evolutionary Biology not elsewhere classified | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences | Population, Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics

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