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Background  Maternal or uniparental inheritance (UPI) of mitochondria is generally observed in sexual eukaryotes, however, the underlying mechanisms are diverse and largely unknown. Recently, based on the use of mutants blocked in autophagy, it has been demonstrated that autophagy is required for strict maternal inheritance in the nematode  Caenorhabditis elegans.  Uniparental mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) inheritance has been well documented for numerous fungal species, and in particular, has been shown to be genetically governed by the mating-type loci in the isogamous species  Cryptococcus neoformans ,  Phycomyces blakesleeanus  and  Ustilago maydis . Previously, we have shown that the  a2  mating-type locus gene  lga2  is decisive for UPI during sexual development of  U. maydis . In axenic culture, conditional overexpression of  lga2  triggers efficient loss of mtDNA as well as mitophagy. To assess a functional relationship, we have investigated UPI in  U. maydis Δatg11  mutants, which are blocked in mitophagy.    Results  This study has revealed that  Δatg11  mutants are not affected in pathogenic development and this has allowed us to analyse UPI under comparable developmental conditions between mating-compatible wild-type and mutant strain combinations. Explicitly, we have examined two independent strain combinations that gave rise to different efficiencies of UPI. We demonstrate that in both cases UPI is  atg11 -independent, providing evidence that mitophagy is not critical for UPI in  U. maydis , even under conditions of strict UPI.    Conclusions  Until now, analysis of a role of mitophagy in UPI has not been reported for microbial species. Our study suggests that selective autophagy does not contribute to UPI in  U. maydis , but is rather a consequence of selective mtDNA elimination in response to mitochondrial damage.    Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12866-015-0358-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Uniparental mitochondrial DNA inheritance is not affected in Ustilago maydis Δatg11 mutants blocked in mitophagy