Wednesday 22 May 2019

An aerobic eukaryotic parasite with functional mitochondria that likely lacks a mitochondrial genome

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6482013/pdf/aav1110.pdf

John U, Lu Y, Wohlrab S, Groth M, Janouškovec J, Kohli GS, Mark FC, Bickmeyer U, Farhat S, Felder M, Frickenhaus S, Guillou L, Keeling PJ, Moustafa A, Porcel BM, Valentin K, Glöckner G


  • A long-standing debate in the field of mitochondrial physiology is the purpose of mitochondrial DNA. The "co-location for redox regulation" (CoRR) hypothesis states that mitochondrial genomes are necessary to provide local control of the electron transport chain.
  • The authors describe an aerobic eukaryotic parasite (Amoebophyra ceratii) with functional mitochondria, but have completely lost their mitochondrial genome, finding that all mitochondrial proteins appear to be lost or encoded in the nucleus. 
  • This finding challenges the CoRR hypothesis, and potentially suggests the possibility of complete transfer of the mitochondrial genome into the nuclear genome for more complex organisms.


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