Mitochondrial genomes revisited: why do different lineages retain different genes?

Anzhelika Butenko; Julius Lukeš; Dave Speijer; Jeremy G. Wideman

doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-01824-1

Mitochondrial genomes revisited: why do different lineages retain different genes?

Anzhelika Butenko, Julius Lukeš, Dave Speijer, Jeremy G. Wideman

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › Academic › peer-review

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.

Original language	English
Article number	15
Journal	BMC Biology
Volume	22
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-01824-1
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2024

Keywords

CoRR hypothesis
Endosymbiont gene transfer
Evolutionary cell biology
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial evolution
Mitochondrial mutation rates

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https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-01824-1

Cite this

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title = "Mitochondrial genomes revisited: why do different lineages retain different genes?",

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 {\textquoteleft}burst-upon-drift{\textquoteright} model to best explain nuclear-mitochondrial population genetics with flares of transfer due to genetic drift.",

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N2 - 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.

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Mitochondrial genomes revisited: why do different lineages retain different genes?

Abstract

Keywords

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