Mitochondrial Genome Evolution and the Origin of Eukaryotes
1999/12/01 by B. Franz Lang, Michael W. Gray, Gertraud Burger · 729 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · #Biology #Endosymbiosis #Evolutionary biology #Extant taxon #Gene #Genetics #Genome #Genome evolution #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology #Mitochondrial DNA #Mitochondrion #Nuclear gene #Phylogenetics #Phylogenomics #Plastid #Protist diversity and phylogeny
paper · doi:10.1146/annurev.genet.33.1.351
published in Annual Review of Genetics 33(1), 351-397 (Annual Reviews)
openalex publication_date 1999/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Abstract
Recent results from ancestral (minimally derived) protists testify to the tremendous diversity of the mitochondrial genome in various eukaryotic lineages, but also reinforce the view that mitochondria, descendants of an endosymbiotic alpha-Proteobacterium, arose only once in evolution. The serial endosymbiosis theory, currently the most popular hypothesis to explain the origin of mitochondria, postulates the capture of an alpha-proteobacterial endosymbiont by a nucleus-containing eukaryotic host resembling extant amitochondriate protists. New sequence data have challenged this scenario, instead raising the possibility that the origin of the mitochondrion was coincident with, and contributed substantially to, the origin of the nuclear genome of the eukaryotic cell. Defining more precisely the alpha-proteobacterial ancestry of the mitochondrial genome, and the contribution of the endosymbiotic event to the nuclear genome, will be essential for a full understanding of the origin and evolution of the eukaryotic cell as a whole.
Citations
Cited by
- Orthologs, Paralogs, and Evolutionary Genomics
- Human Mitochondrial tRNAs: Biogenesis, Function, Structural Aspects, and Diseases
- Complete mitochondrial genomes of four pharyngodonid nematodes reveal extensive gene order rearrangement
- Extreme mitochondrial genome complexity in the calcaronean sponge Sycon ciliatum (Fabricius, 1780): fragmentation, gene duplication and mRNA editing
- Mitochondrial genomes: anything goes
- The Large Mitochondrial Genome ofSymbiodinium minutumReveals Conserved Noncoding Sequences between Dinoflagellates and Apicomplexans
- Loss of mitochondrial single stranded DNA-binding protein (mtSSB) gene is associated with mitochondrial genome fragmentation in Psocodea (bark lice, book lice, and parasitic lice)
- Phylogenetic and evolutionary insights from 30 newly-assembled Onygenales Mitochondrial Genomes: co-evolution of introns and HEGs shapes mitogenome size variation
- Protein Signatures Distinctive of Alpha Proteobacteria and Its Subgroups and a Model for α –Proteobacterial Evolution
- Valoración del suelo: método residual dinámico simplificado
- Poxviruses and the Origin of the Eukaryotic Nucleus
- Origins and Early Evolution of Predation
- Phylogeny and Molecular Evolution of the Green Algae
- Opening and closing the metabolite gate
- Evaluating hypotheses for the origin of eukaryotes
- Global importance of RNA secondary structures in protein-coding sequences
- Mitochondrial DNA mutations in human disease
- Mitochondrial connection to the origin of the eukaryotic cell
- Rickettsiaceae, Rickettsia-Like Endosymbionts, and the Origin of Mitochondria
- Rather rule than exception? How to evaluate the relevance of dual protein targeting to mitochondria and chloroplasts
- On the origins of cells: a hypothesis for the evolutionary transitions from abiotic geochemistry to chemoautotrophic prokaryotes, and from prokaryotes to nucleated cells
- The other eukaryotes in light of evolutionary protistology
- Mitochondrial Evolution
- The Protistan Origins of Animals and Fungi
- Evolution [wikipedia]
- Marine life [wikipedia]
Related