Department of Mathematics, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway.
School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
Mol Biol Evol. 2024 Jun 1;41(6). doi: 10.1093/molbev/msae097.
Mitochondria and plastids have both dramatically reduced their genomes since the endosymbiotic events that created them. The similarities and differences in the evolution of the two organelle genome types have been the target of discussion and investigation for decades. Ongoing work has suggested that similar mechanisms may modulate the reductive evolution of the two organelles in a given species, but quantitative data and statistical analyses exploring this picture remain limited outside of some specific cases like parasitism. Here, we use cross-eukaryote organelle genome data to explore evidence for coevolution of mitochondrial and plastid genome reduction. Controlling for differences between clades and pseudoreplication due to relatedness, we find that extents of mtDNA and ptDNA gene retention are related to each other across taxa, in a generally positive correlation that appears to differ quantitatively across eukaryotes, for example, between algal and nonalgal species. We find limited evidence for coevolution of specific mtDNA and ptDNA gene pairs, suggesting that the similarities between the two organelle types may be due mainly to independent responses to consistent evolutionary drivers.
线粒体和质体自内共生事件创造它们以来，其基因组都大大减少了。几十年来，两种细胞器基因组类型的进化相似性和差异一直是讨论和研究的目标。正在进行的工作表明，类似的机制可能调节给定物种中两种细胞器的还原进化，但除了寄生等一些特定情况外，定量数据和统计分析探索这种情况仍然有限。在这里，我们使用跨真核生物细胞器基因组数据来探索线粒体和质体基因组减少的协同进化证据。控制谱系之间的差异以及由于亲缘关系导致的伪重复，我们发现 mtDNA 和 ptDNA 基因保留程度在分类群之间相互关联，通常呈正相关，这种相关性在真核生物中似乎在数量上有所不同，例如，在藻类和非藻类物种之间。我们发现特定 mtDNA 和 ptDNA 基因对协同进化的证据有限，这表明两种细胞器类型之间的相似性可能主要归因于对一致进化驱动因素的独立反应。
