Segregation of mtDNA mutations protects mitochondria across kingdoms, with impacts from longevity to agriculture and evolvability

Abstract Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) encodes essential bioenergetic and metabolic machinery across eukaryotes, but it is susceptible to mutational damage. The high copy number, physical location and inheritance patterns of mtDNA mean that specialist approaches to mitigate such damage are needed. A common theme across many species is segregation or ‘sorting out’ of different mtDNA types—generating variance in mutant frequencies within and between generations, so that multiscale selection can act to remove deleterious mutations. Eukaryotes with different physiologies and ecologies use different strategies for this segregation. This article attempts to review and—with the aid of some bioinformatics and new modelling results—synthesize the ways that this segregation is achieved across different eukaryotic organisms. In parallel, the importance of segregation in human disease, longevity, agriculture and for biology on a rapidly changing planet is discussed. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolutionary genetics of mitochondria: on diverse and common evolutionary constraints across eukarya’.