1. Mitochondrial genomes revisited: why do different lineages retain different genes?
- Author
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Anzhelika Butenko, Julius Lukeš, Dave Speijer, and Jeremy G. Wideman
- Subjects
CoRR hypothesis ,Evolutionary cell biology ,Endosymbiont gene transfer ,Mitochondrial DNA ,Mitochondrial evolution ,Mitochondrial mutation rates ,Biology (General) ,QH301-705.5 - Abstract
Abstract The mitochondria contain their own genome derived from an alphaproteobacterial endosymbiont. From thousands of protein-coding genes originally encoded by their ancestor, only between 1 and about 70 are encoded on extant mitochondrial genomes (mitogenomes). Thanks to a dramatically increasing number of sequenced and annotated mitogenomes a coherent picture of why some genes were lost, or relocated to the nucleus, is emerging. In this review, we describe the characteristics of mitochondria-to-nucleus gene transfer and the resulting varied content of mitogenomes across eukaryotes. We introduce a ‘burst-upon-drift’ model to best explain nuclear-mitochondrial population genetics with flares of transfer due to genetic drift.
- Published
- 2024
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