Abstract
Annual Review of Biochemistry
Vol. 76 (Volume publication date July 2007)
(doi:10.1146/annurev.biochem.76.081205.150955)


Why Do We Have a Maternally Inherited Mitochondrial DNA? Insights from Evolutionary Medicine

Douglas C. Wallace*
Center for Molecular and Mitochondrial Medicine and Genetics, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3940 dwallace@uci.edu





Life is the interplay between structure and energy-immortalized through heritable, mutable information. Structure is the purview of the nuclear cytosol and is encoded by Mendelian genes while energy is the purview of the mitochondrion and controlled by the mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs). Mitochondria generate energy via oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS), oxidizing calories to generate the mitochondrial inner membrane proton gradient (ΔP). ΔP is then used to generate ATP, the amount determined by the coupling efficiency. The mtDNAs of all organisms retain essentially the same set of "core" OXPHOS genes, all of which are involved in the generation or utilization of ΔP. Since ΔP is the common currency of OXPHOS, the functions of the core proteins must be co-optimized. This is accomplished by retention of the "core" genes on the maternally inherited mtDNA such that each new mutation is tested by selection in the context of the other linked protein variants.

Expected online publication date for the Annual Review of Biochemistry Volume 76 is June 2, 2007. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/catalog/pub_dates.asp for revised estimates.

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