动物线粒体遗传系统理论与应用研究进展

Advance on Animal Mito-genetic System and Its Applications

随着线粒体与人类疾病之间关系研究的不断深入,线粒体DNA及其编码的13个多肽的功能和进化引起了众多研究者的关注。作为有氧呼吸的后生动物主要的产能系统——线粒体电子传递系统(ETS)由线粒体和核基因组共同编码,自然选择被认为偏爱那些增强ETS功能的突变,此类突变可发生在线粒体或核编码的ETS蛋白中并引起积极的基因组间的相互作用,即"共适应"。线粒体DNA进化通常被认为遵循一种稳定的突变速率平衡中性模型,但有证据表明该假设可能并不可靠。对线粒体遗传系统研究的最新进展进行了综述,这对科学和合理地使用线粒体DNA分析技术具重要意义。

Recently,recognition of the role of mtDNA mutations in human diseases has increased the interest of researches in the function and evolution of mtDNA and the 13 polypeptides it encodes. Mt-and nuclear-encoded proteins formed the mitochondrial electron transport system（ETS）. As the primary energy generation system in aerobic metazoans, natural selection would be expected to favor mutations that enhance ETS functions. Such mutations could occur in the genes encoding ETS proteins and would lead to positive intergenomie interactions,or co-adaptation. Variation in mtDNA is often assumed to conform to a constant mutation rate equilibrium neutral model. Recent evidence, however, indicates that the assumptions underlying this model are frequently violated. In this article, we also reviewed its recent applications in animal phylogcnetics and forensic science.