Chromosomal Distribution of Cytonuclear Genes in a Dioecious Plant with Sex Chromosomes

The coordination between nuclear and organellar genes is essential to many aspects of eukaryotic life, including basic metabolism, energy production, and ultimately, organismal fitness. Although nuclear genes are biparentally inherited, mitochondrial and chloroplast genes are almost exclusively maternally inherited, and this asymmetry may lead to a bias in the chromosomal distribution of nuclear genes whose products act in the mitochondria or chloroplasts. In particular, because X-linked genes have a higher probability of cotransmission with organellar genes (2/3) compared with autosomal genes (1/2), selection for coadaptation has been predicted to lead to an overrepresentation of nuclear-mitochondrial and nuclear-chloroplast genes on the X chromosome relative to autosomes. In contrast, the occurrence of sexually antagonistic organellar mutations might lead to selection for movement of cytonuclear genes from the X chromosome to autosomes to reduce male mutation load. Recent broad-scale comparative studies of N-mt distributions in animals have found evidence for these hypotheses in some species, but not others. Here, we use transcriptome sequences to conduct the first study of the chromosomal distribution of cytonuclear interacting genes in a plant species with sex chromosomes (Rumex hastatulus; Polygonaceae). We found no evidence of under- or overrepresentation of either N-mt or N-cp genes on the X chromosome, and thus no support for either the coadaptation or the sexual-conflict hypothesis. We discuss how our results from a species with recently evolved sex chromosomes fit into an emerging picture of the evolutionary forces governing the chromosomal distribution of nuclear-mitochondrial and nuclear-chloroplast genes.