Journal article
Evolution of extensively fragmented mitochondrial genomes in the lice of humans
Genome Biology and Evolution, Vol.4(11), pp.1088-1101
2012
Abstract
Bilateral animals are featured by an extremely compact mitochondrial (mt) genome with 37 genes on a single circular chromosome. The human body louse, Pediculus humanus, however, has its mt genes on 20 minichromosomes. We sequenced the mt genomes of two other human lice: the head louse, P. capitis, and the pubic louse, Pthirus pubis. Comparison among the three human lice revealed the presence of fragmented mt genomes in their most recent common ancestor, which lived ∼7 Ma. The head louse has exactly the same set of mt minichromosomes as the body louse, indicating that the number of minichromosomes, and the gene content and gene arrangement in each minichromosome have remained unchanged since the body louse evolved from the head louse ∼107,000 years ago. The pubic louse has the same pattern of one protein-coding or rRNA gene per minichromosome (except one minichromosome with two protein-coding genes, atp6 and atp8) as the head louse and the body louse. This pattern is apparently ancestral to all human lice and has been stable for at least 7 Myr. Most tRNA genes of the pubic louse, however, are on different minichromosomes when compared with their counterparts in the head louse and the body louse. It is evident that rearrangement of four tRNA genes (for leucine, arginine and glycine) was due to gene-identity switch by point mutation at the third anticodon position or by homologous recombination, whereas rearrangement of other tRNA genes was by gene translocation between minichromosomes, likely caused by minichromosome split via gene degeneration and deletion.
Details
- Title
- Evolution of extensively fragmented mitochondrial genomes in the lice of humans
- Authors
- Renfu Shao (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and EngineeringX Q Zhu (Author) - Lanzhou Veterinary Institute, ChinaS C Barker (Author) - University of QueenslandK Herd (Author) - University of Queensland
- Publication details
- Genome Biology and Evolution, Vol.4(11), pp.1088-1101
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Date published
- 2012
- DOI
- 10.1093/gbe/evs088
- ISSN
- 1759-6653
- Copyright note
- Copyright © The Author(s) 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450119202621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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