Department of Biological Sciences, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Department of Biological, Geological, and Environmental Sciences, University of Bologna, Italy.
Genome Biol Evol. 2021 Jul 6;13(7). doi: 10.1093/gbe/evab084.
How do species respond or adapt to environmental changes? The answer to this depends partly on mitochondrial epigenetics and genetics, new players in promoting adaptation to both short- and long-term environmental changes. In this review, we explore how mitochondrial epigenetics and genetics mechanisms, such as mtDNA methylation, mtDNA-derived noncoding RNAs, micropeptides, mtDNA mutations, and adaptations, can contribute to animal plasticity and adaptation. We also briefly discuss the challenges in assessing mtDNA adaptive evolution. In sum, this review covers new advances in the field of mitochondrial genomics, many of which are still controversial, and discusses processes still somewhat obscure, and some of which are still quite speculative and require further robust experimentation.
物种如何对环境变化做出响应或适应？这个问题的答案部分取决于线粒体表观遗传学和遗传学，它们是促进短期和长期环境变化适应的新参与者。在这篇综述中，我们探讨了线粒体表观遗传学和遗传学机制，如 mtDNA 甲基化、mtDNA 衍生的非编码 RNA、微肽、mtDNA 突变和适应，如何有助于动物的可塑性和适应性。我们还简要讨论了评估 mtDNA 适应性进化的挑战。总之，本综述涵盖了线粒体基因组学领域的新进展，其中许多仍存在争议，并讨论了一些仍有些模糊的过程，其中一些仍相当推测性的，需要进一步进行强有力的实验。
