MBE Advance Access originally published online on December 1, 2004
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2005 22(3):716-724; doi:10.1093/molbev/msi059
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Research Article |
Fast Adaptive Coevolution of Nuclear and Mitochondrial Subunits of ATP Synthetase in Orangutan


* Department of Neurology, University of Miami School of Medicine;
Institute for Anthropology and Human Genetics, Department Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany; and
Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Miami School of Medicine
E-mail: cmoraes{at}med.miami.edu.
Nuclear and mitochondrial genomes have to work in concert to generate a functional oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) system. We have previously shown that we could restore partial OXPHOS function when chimpanzee or gorilla mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were introduced into human cells lacking mtDNA. However, we were unable to maintain orangutan mitochondrial DNA in a human cell. We have now produced chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan, and baboon cells lacking mtDNA and attempted to introduce mtDNA from different apes into them. Surprisingly, we were able to maintain human mtDNA in an orangutan nuclear background, even though these cells showed severe OXPHOS abnormalities, including a complete absence of assembled ATP synthetase. Phylogenetic analysis of complex V mtDNA-encoded subunits showed that they are among the most evolutionarily divergent components of the mitochondrial genome between orangutan and the other apes. Our studies showed that adaptive coevolution of nuclear and mitochondrial components in apes can be fast and accelerate in recent branches of anthropoid primates.
Key Words: anthropoid primates coevolution cybrids oxidative phosphorylation mitochondrial DNA
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