Average number of mitochondria in C elegans cell

Model Organism: Worms Scientific Discussion
1

Hi there
I’m wondering about the average number of mitochondria in c elegans cell.
The matter is I want to substract the mitochondrial DNA copy numbers from isolated DNA so that I get only the nuclear genome copy numbers. :-\

Thanks in advance.

2

First of all, I don’t know the answer.

But could you not do a qPCR experiment comparing an mDNA gene with one found in nuclear DNA? That way you wouldn’t rely on others averages but would know exactly what the ratio in your sample of interest is.

Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

Toby

3

Most (~90%) of mt genomes are in the germline and associated with oocyte production (see W. Y. Tsang, B. D. Lemire, 2002 Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 291, 8). If you want to measure the # of genomes relative to genomic content with qPCR, I developed a set of primers to amplify mtDNA which were used by David Cristina in the Kenyon lab (D. Cristina, M. Cary, A. Lunceford, C. Clarke, C. Kenyon, 2005 PLoS Genet 5, e1000450). Good luck.