Wei, D. D. et al. The multipartite mitochondrial genome of Liposcelis bostrychophila: insights into the evolution of mitochondrial genomes in bilateral animals.
The Gu Lab investigates the evolution of mitochondrial functions and the role of mtDNA mutation in aging and various diseases, including but not limited to tumor, autism and neural degenerative diseases.
By charting the evolution of mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from a mother to her children, scientists in the 1980s placed her existence about 200,000 years ago, most likely in Africa.
Thus inverted repeats can act as an important force in evolution of mitochondrial genome architecture and be a valuable marker for population- and species-level studies in this group.
Notably, when the evolution of mitochondrial protein-coding genes in modern humans, Neanderthals, chimpanzees and bonobos is gauged in conjunction with the Denisova hominin mtDNA, a previously described reduction of silent substitutions causing an increased dN/dS in Neanderthals1,26 is not observed.
Comparative and phylogenetic analyses were used to investigate the evolution of mitochondrial proteins during eukaryote diversification.
Recently, Bolnick et al. (2008) [57] demonstrate that asymmetric hybrid viability (Darwin's corollary to Haldane's rule) can be explained by differential rate evolution of mitochondrial genomes between species.
Ancestral gene content evolution of mitochondrial genomes was reconstructed using the Count software [ 53].
However, concerted evolution of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has received much less attention.
Thus, recombination can be harnessed to dissect function and evolution of mitochondrial genome.
The well supported phylogenetic topology helps to reconstruct the evolution of mitochondrial gene arrangements in snakes.
