Xu X, Arnason U
Division of Evolutionary Molecular Systematics, University of Lund, Sweden.
Mol Biol Evol. 1996 May;13(5):691-8. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.molbev.a025630.
The complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) molecule of the gorilla was sequenced. The entire sequence, 16,412 nucleotides, was determined by analysis of natural (not polymerase chain reaction) restriction fragments covering the whole molecule. The sequence was established from one individual and thus nonchimeric. After comparison with the COII gene of gorilla specimens with known geographical origin, the sequence was identified as characteristic of the Western lowland gorilla, Gorilla gorilla gorilla. With the exception of the NADH2 gene, all genes have a methionine start codon. The inferred start codon of NADH2 is ATT (isoleucine). The COIII, NASDH4, and cytochrome b genes are not terminated by a stop codon triplet, and the COI gene is probably terminated by an AAA triplet rather than by a regular stop codon. The great majority of genic sequences (rRNAs, peptide-coding genes, tRNAs) of the complete mtDNAs of Gorilla, Pan, and Homo show a greater similarity between Pan and Homo than between either of these genera to Gorilla. The analysis of the peptide-coding genes suggest that relative to comparison between Homo and Pan a certain degree of transition saturation has taken place in codon position 3 in comparisons between Gorilla to either Homo or Pan.
对大猩猩的完整线粒体DNA（mtDNA）分子进行了测序。通过分析覆盖整个分子的天然（而非聚合酶链反应）限制性片段，确定了全长16412个核苷酸的完整序列。该序列来自一个个体，因此不存在嵌合现象。在与已知地理来源的大猩猩标本的COII基因进行比较后，该序列被确定为西部低地大猩猩（Gorilla gorilla gorilla）的特征序列。除了NADH2基因外，所有基因都有一个甲硫氨酸起始密码子。NADH2的推断起始密码子是ATT（异亮氨酸）。COIII、NASDH4和细胞色素b基因不是由终止密码子三联体终止的，COI基因可能是由AAA三联体而不是常规终止密码子终止的。大猩猩、黑猩猩和人类完整线粒体DNA的绝大多数基因序列（rRNA、肽编码基因、tRNA）显示，黑猩猩和人类之间的相似性大于这两个属与大猩猩之间的相似性。对肽编码基因的分析表明，相对于人类和黑猩猩之间的比较，在大猩猩与人类或黑猩猩之间的比较中，密码子第3位发生了一定程度的转换饱和。
