Back
Fichier principal
Journal article

Covariation of mitochondrial genome size with gene lengths: evidence for gene length reduction during mitochondrial evolution

Université de Fribourg

  • Schneider, André Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
  • Ebert, Dieter Department of Biology, University of Fribourg, Switzerland
    2004
Published in:
  • Journal of Molecular Evolution. - 2004, vol. 59, p. 90-96
mitochondrial genome size
gene length
gene length reduction
mitochondrial evolution
gene length/genome size covariation
English Reduction of genome size and gene shortening have been observed in a number of parasitic and mutualistic intracellular symbionts. Reduction of coding capacity is also a unifying principle in the evolutionary history of mitochondria, but little is known about the evolution of gene length in mitochondria. The genes for cytochrome c oxidase subunits I–III, cytochrome b, and the large and small subunit rRNAs are, with very few exceptions, always found on the mitochondrial genome. These resident mitochondrial genes can therefore be used to test whether the reduction in gene lengths observed in a number of intracellular symbionts is also seen in mitochondria. Here we show that resident mitochondrial gene products are shorter than their corresponding counterparts in agr-proteobacteria and, furthermore, that the reduction of mitochondrial genome size is correlated with a reduction in the length of the corresponding resident gene products. We show that relative genomic AT content, which has been identified as a factor influencing gene lengths in other systems, cannot explain gene length/genome size covariance observed in mitochondria. Our data are therefore in agreement with the idea that gene length evolves as a consequence of selection for smaller genomes, either to avoid accumulation of deleterious mutations or triggered by selection for a replication advantage.
Faculty
Faculté des sciences et de médecine
Department
Département de Biologie
Language
  • English
Classification
Biological sciences
License
License undefined
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/299542
Statistics
Document views: 137 File downloads:
  • J_Mol_Evol_2004_.pdf: 168