ABSTRACT
Cytoplasmic-based traits in domestic animals have included growth, reproduction, and lactation. In addition, mitochondrial restriction fragment-length polymorphisms (RFLPs) were identified and associated with specific lactational characteristics in a number of dairy cattle lineages. The matrilineal inheritance of mammalian mtDNA has also been used to advantage in studies exploring the timing and geography of domestication events, as demonstrated for horses, where multiple domestication events appear to have occurred in the Eurasian steppe.[2] In addition, metabolic and cellular abnormalities in humans were correlated to mutations arising exclusively within the mitochondrial genome. Indeed, various diseases have been associated with mtDNA point mutations, deletions, and duplications (e.g., diabetes mellitus, myocardiopathy, and retinitis pigmentosa) as well as age-associated changes in the functional integrity of mitochondria (as seen in Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s diseases). As such, for both agricultural and biomedical research efforts, the ability to manipulate the mitochondrial genome and to regulate the expression of mitochondrial genes would provide one possible mode of genetic manipulation and therapy.
