Effects of a mitochondrial–nuclear interaction on development.

<p>(A) Mitochondrial-nuclear interactions between the <i>D. simulans simw⁵⁰¹</i> mtDNA and the <i>D. melanogaster OreR</i> nuclear genome significantly extend egg-to-adult development time in both sexes (mtDNA×nuclear interaction: <i>P_ANOVA</i>≤0.0001, <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003238#pgen.1003238.s004" target="_blank">Table S1</a>). The <i>D. simulans sm21</i> mtDNA is closely related to <i>simw⁵⁰¹</i>, but has no effect on development time relative to the <i>D. melanogaster ore</i> mtDNA. (B and C) Both larval development and metamorphosis are delayed in <i>(simw⁵⁰¹);OreR</i>. Crosses between mitochondrial-nuclear genotypes indicated that the <i>OreR</i> nuclear effect on development is similar in males and females, autosomal and largely recessive (<i>h</i> = 0.18, 0.19 and 0.23, for pupation time, and male and female eclosion times, respectively, where <i>h</i> = 0 is complete dominance of <i>AutW132</i> and <i>h</i> = 0.5 is additivity). Listed below the graphs are the (<i>mtDNA</i>);<i>sex chromosome</i>;<i>autosome</i> genotypes (<i>O</i> = <i>OreR</i>, <i>A</i> = <i>AutW132</i>). <i>O/A</i> and <i>A/O</i> heterozygotes indicate the offspring of reciprocal crosses and differ in the parent-of-origin of the autosomes (<i>maternal</i>/<i>paternal</i>). The difference in time from egg to pupation between (<i>simw⁵⁰¹</i>);<i>AutW132</i> and (<i>simw⁵⁰¹</i>);<i>OreR</i> is approximately 65 hours. The difference in time from egg to adult emergence between (<i>simw⁵⁰¹</i>);<i>AutW132</i> and (<i>simw⁵⁰¹</i>);<i>OreR</i> is 80 and 82 hours in males and females, respectively. The 65 hour delay in larval development and the additional 15–17 hour delay during metamorphosis between (<i>simw⁵⁰¹</i>);<i>AutW132</i> and (<i>simw⁵⁰¹</i>);<i>OreR</i> are both statistically significant (<i>P</i>_t-test<0.001).