Molecular Biology and Evolution, Vol 13, 209-220, Copyright © 1996 by Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution
M Lynch
The accumulation of deleterious mutations is thought to be a major factor
preventing the long-term persistence of obligately asexual lineages
relative to their sexual ancestors. This phenomenon is also of potential
relevance to sexual species that harbor asexually propagating organelle
genomes. A comparative study of the transfer RNA genes in animal
mitochondrial and nuclear genomes demonstrates that the former accumulate
nucleotide substitutions much more rapidly than do the latter, and several
lines of evidence are consistent with the idea that the excess
substitutions are mildly deleterious. First, the average binding stability
between complementary strands in the stems of mitochondrial tRNAs is less
than half that in nuclear tRNAs. Second, most loop sizes in the
mitochondrial tRNAs have experienced a net reduction in size over
evolutionary time, and they are nearly 50 times more variable in the
mitochondrial than in the nuclear genome. Third, although nearly 20% of the
nucleotides in nuclear tRNA genes (particularly those involved in tertiary
interactions) are invariant across all animal taxa and all tRNA species,
there are no invariant sites in the mitochondrial tRNAs. These
observations, as well as results from recent laboratory experiments, are
consistent with the hypothesis that nonrecombining organelle genomes are
subject to gradual loss of fitness due to the cumulative chance fixation of
mildly deleterious mutations.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Mutation accumulation in transfer RNAs: molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes
Department of Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene 97403, USA.
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  S. E. Massey The Proteomic Constraint and Its Role in Molecular Evolution Mol. Biol. Evol., December 1, 2008; 25(12): 2557 - 2565. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. E. Masta and J. L. Boore Parallel Evolution of Truncated Transfer RNA Genes in Arachnid Mitochondrial Genomes Mol. Biol. Evol., May 1, 2008; 25(5): 949 - 959. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 R. J. Soderberg and O. G. Berg Mutational Interference and the Progression of Muller's Ratchet When Mutations Have a Broad Range of Deleterious Effects Genetics, October 1, 2007; 177(2): 971 - 986. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. E. Popescu and R. W. Lee Mitochondrial Genome Sequence Evolution in Chlamydomonas Genetics, February 1, 2007; 175(2): 819 - 826. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 A. Fender, C. Sauter, M. Messmer, J. Putz, R. Giege, C. Florentz, and M. Sissler Loss of a Primordial Identity Element for a Mammalian Mitochondrial Aminoacylation System J. Biol. Chem., June 9, 2006; 281(23): 15980 - 15986. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. Nei Selectionism and Neutralism in Molecular Evolution Mol. Biol. Evol., December 1, 2005; 22(12): 2318 - 2342. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. M. Poole and D. T. Logan Modern mRNA Proofreading and Repair: Clues that the Last Universal Common Ancestor Possessed an RNA Genome? Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2005; 22(6): 1444 - 1455. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. E. Masta and J. L. Boore The Complete Mitochondrial Genome Sequence of the Spider Habronattus oregonensis Reveals Rearranged and Extremely Truncated tRNAs Mol. Biol. Evol., May 1, 2004; 21(5): 893 - 902. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 T. Itoh, W. Martin, and M. Nei Acceleration of genomic evolution caused by enhanced mutation rate in endocellular symbionts PNAS, October 1, 2002; 99(20): 12944 - 12948. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. A. Fares, E. Barrio, B. Sabater-Munoz, and A. Moya The Evolution of the Heat-Shock Protein GroEL from Buchnera, the Primary Endosymbiont of Aphids, Is Governed by Positive Selection Mol. Biol. Evol., July 1, 2002; 19(7): 1162 - 1170. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. Lynch, M. O'Hely, B. Walsh, and A. Force The Probability of Preservation of a Newly Arisen Gene Duplicate Genetics, December 1, 2001; 159(4): 1789 - 1804. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
K. P. Johnson and J. Seger Elevated Rates of Nonsynonymous Substitution in Island Birds Mol. Biol. Evol., May 1, 2001; 18(5): 874 - 881. [Abstract] [Full Text]
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. J. Funk, J. J. Wernegreen, and N. A. Moran Intraspecific Variation in Symbiont Genomes: Bottlenecks and the Aphid-Buchnera Association Genetics, February 1, 2001; 157(2): 477 - 489. [Abstract] [Full Text]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 C. G. Kurland and S. G. E. Andersson Origin and Evolution of the Mitochondrial Proteome Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev., December 1, 2000; 64(4): 786 - 820. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. V. Lavrov, W. M. Brown, and J. L. Boore A novel type of RNA editing occurs in the mitochondrial tRNAs of the centipede Lithobius forficatus PNAS, November 22, 2000; (2000) 250402997. [Abstract] [Full Text]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. E. Masta Mitochondrial Sequence Evolution in Spiders: Intraspecific Variation in tRNAs Lacking the T{Psi}C Arm Mol. Biol. Evol., July 1, 2000; 17(7): 1091 - 1100. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. D. Palmer, K. L. Adams, Y. Cho, C. L. Parkinson, Y.-L. Qiu, and K. Song Dynamic evolution of plant mitochondrial genomes: Mobile genes and introns and highly variable mutation rates PNAS, June 20, 2000; 97(13): 6960 - 6966. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
O. G. Berg and C. G. Kurland Why Mitochondrial Genes are Most Often Found in Nuclei Mol. Biol. Evol., June 1, 2000; 17(6): 951 - 961. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
K. L. Adams, K. Song, P. G. Roessler, J. M. Nugent, J. L. Doyle, J. J. Doyle, and J. D. Palmer Intracellular gene transfer in action: Dual transcription and multiple silencings of nuclear and mitochondrial cox2 genes in legumes PNAS, November 23, 1999; 96(24): 13863 - 13868. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 W. Martin and R. G. Herrmann Gene Transfer from Organelles to the Nucleus: How Much, What Happens, and Why? Plant Physiology, September 1, 1998; 118(1): 9 - 17. [Full Text]
|
|
|
|
|
|
C. T. Bergstrom and J. Pritchard Germline Bottlenecks and the Evolutionary Maintenance of Mitochondrial Genomes Genetics, August 1, 1998; 149(4): 2135 - 2146. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
J. D. Lambert and N. A. Moran Deleterious mutations destabilize ribosomal RNA in endosymbiotic bacteria PNAS, April 14, 1998; 95(8): 4458 - 4462. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
B. J. Saville, Y. Kohli, and J. B. Anderson mtDNA recombination in a natural population PNAS, February 3, 1998; 95(3): 1331 - 1335. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
L. F. Landweber, T.-C. Kuo, and E. A. Curtis Evolution and assembly of an extremely scrambled gene PNAS, March 28, 2000; 97(7): 3298 - 3303. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. V. Lavrov, W. M. Brown, and J. L. Boore A novel type of RNA editing occurs in the mitochondrial tRNAs of the centipede Lithobius forficatus PNAS, December 5, 2000; 97(25): 13738 - 13742. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|