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RESEARCH INTERESTS
Animal and plant mitochondrial DNAs
PUBLICATIONS
Animal Mitochondrial Genomes
Most eukaryotes contain mitochondria and all mitochondria so
far examined contain their own DNA genome. This genome is
small compared to the organismıs nuclear genome, but it is
essential to life. Most animal mitochondrial (mt) genomes
comprise a single circular molecule of 14 to 19 kb that
contains a homologous set of genes for 13 energy pathway
proteins, two rRNAs (ribosomal RNAs) and 22 transfer RNAs.
Our current interest in animal mtDNA is focused on the
bivalve mussel Mytilus californianus. This and three
other Mytilus species each contain two distinct
sequence types of mtDNA that are maintained by a unique
biparental inheritance mechanism. Females contain only one
kind of mtDNA molecule, F-type. In contrast the somatic
tissues and testes of males contain F-type mtDNA, and a
second kind designated M-type. Sperm contain only M-type,
or M-type in substantial excess to F-type. As it is known that
progeny acquire only M-type mtDNA from males, the F- and
M-type mtDNAs are inherited totally independently through
males and females, respectively.
We are presently carrying out experiments aimed at learning
about the mechanisms by which M-type mtDNA molecules
survives in male embryos and become the dominant mtDNA
molecules in sperm. Consideration of the possible
consequences of two functional, greatly different sequence
kinds of mtDNA molecule in the same cell have stimulated us
to design experiments to examine the partitioning of F-type
and M-type mtDNAs and their transcription and translation
products among individual cells in different male tissues.
Wolstenholme, D.R. 1992. Animal mitochondrial DNA:
structure and evolution. In: Mitochondrial genomes.
International Review of Cytology. vol. 141. ed. D.R.
Wolstenholme and K.W. Jeon Academic Press, New York, NY.
pp. 173-216.
Pont-Kingdon, G.A., N.A. Okada, J.L. Macfarlane, C.T. Beagley,
D.R. Wolstenholme, T. Cavalier-Smith and G.D. Clark-Walker.
1995. A coral mitochondrial mutS gene. Nature
1996. 375:109-111.
Wolstenholme, D.R. and C.M.-R. Fauron. 1995. Mitochondrial
genome organization. In: Advances in Cellular and Molecular
Biology of Plants. Vol. 3: The Molecular Biology of Plant
Mitochondria. Eds. C.S. Levings III and I.K. Vasil. Kluwer
Academic Publishers. Dordrecht, The Netherlands. pp 1-59.
Beagley, C.T., N.A. Okada and D.R. Wolstenholome. 1996.
Two mitochondrial group I introns in a metazoan, the sea
anemone Metridium senile: One intron contains genes
for subunits 1 and 3 of NADH dehydrogenase. Proc. Natl.
Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 93:5619-5623.
Beagley, C.T., K.A. Taylor and D.R. Wolstenholme. 1997.
Gender-associated diverse mitochondrial DNA molecules of
the mussel Mytilus californianus. Curr. Genetics
31:318-324.
Beagley, C.T., R. Okimoto and D.R. Wolstenholome. 1998.
The mitochondrial genome of the sea anemone Metridium
senile (Cnidaria): introns, a paucity of tRNA genes, and
a near standard genetic code. Genetics
148:1091-1108.
Pont-Kingdon, G.A., N.A. Okada, J.L. Macfarlane, C.T. Beagley,
C.D. Watkins-Sims, T. Cavalier-Smith, G.D. Clark-Walker and
D.R. Wolstenholme. 1998. Mitochondrial DNA of the coral
Sarcophyton glaucum contains a gene for a
homologue of bacterial MutS: a possible case of gene
transfer from the nucleus to the mitochondrion. J. Mol
Evol. 46:419-431.
Beagley, C.T., R. Okimoto and D.R.Wolstenholme. 1999.
Mytilus mitochondrial DNA contains a functional gene for a
tRNASer(UCN) with a dihydrouridine arm replacement loop and
a pseudo-tRNASer(UCN) gene. Genetics
152:641-652.
Pont-Kingdon, G.A., C.G. Vassort, R. Warrior, R. Okimoto, C.T.
Beagley and D.R. Wolstenholme. 1999. Mitochondrial DNA
of Hydra attenuata (Cnidaria): A sequence that
includes an end of one linear molecule and the genes for l-
rRNA, tRNAf-Met, tRNATrp, COII, and ATPase8. J. Mol. Evol.
(in press).
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