Letter: High-level of Heteroplasmy in the Mitochondrial Cox1-Minichromosome of the Human Body Louse, Pediculus humanus, and the Human Head Louse, Pediculus capitis

K Herd; S C Barker; Renfu Shao

doi:10.2174/1875693X01205010014

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Letter: High-level of Heteroplasmy in the Mitochondrial Cox1-Minichromosome of the Human Body Louse, Pediculus humanus, and the Human Head Louse, Pediculus capitis

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Letter: High-level of Heteroplasmy in the Mitochondrial Cox1-Minichromosome of the Human Body Louse, Pediculus humanus, and the Human Head Louse, Pediculus capitis

K Herd, S C Barker and Renfu Shao

The Open Genomics Journal, Vol.5, pp.14-17

2012

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2174/1875693X01205010014

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Abstract

Cox1

genome

heteroplasmy

mitochondrial minichromosome

Pediculus capitis

Pediculus humanus

The mitochondrial (mt) genome of bilateral animals typically consists of a single chromosome, ~16 kb long, and contains 37 genes. Variation in mt gene sequence within an individual, i.e. heteroplasmy, is common in bilateral animals but usually occurs at very low levels. In the lineage that led to the human body louse, the typical mt chromosome has fragmented into 18 minichromosomes: each minichromosome is 3 to 4 kb long and contains 1 to 3 genes and a noncoding region. To understand the presence and the level of heteroplasmy in fragmented mt genomes, we cloned and sequenced seven copies of full-length cox1-minichromosome of a human body louse and a human head louse. We found 17 heteroplasmic sites in the coding region and 118 heteroplasmic sites in the non-coding region of the cox1- minichromosome. The level of heteroplasmy in the human lice appears to be much higher than that in other animals that have the typical mt genome. We propose that recombination between different minichromosomes of the fragmented mt genome may contribute to the high-level of heteroplasmy in the human lice.

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Title: Letter: High-level of Heteroplasmy in the Mitochondrial Cox1-Minichromosome of the Human Body Louse, Pediculus humanus, and the Human Head Louse, Pediculus capitis
Authors: K Herd (Author) - University of Queensland
S C Barker (Author) - University of Queensland
Renfu Shao (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Publication details: The Open Genomics Journal, Vol.5, pp.14-17
Publisher: Bentham Open
Date published: 2012
DOI: 10.2174/1875693X01205010014
ISSN: 1875-693X
Copyright note: Copyright © 2012 Herd et al.; Licensee Bentham Open. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
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: 99450049702621
Output Type: Journal article

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