Jones - How do organisms preserve the integrity of their mt genome? Flashcards
What is the structure of mtDNA?
- ds closed circle
What does human mtDNA encode and how big is it?
- 13 polypeptides
- 22 tRNAs
- 2 rRNAs
- 16.6kb size
What do the features of mtDNA inc?
- D loop = displacement loop (or control region)
- HSP = heavy strand promoter region
- LSP = light strand promoter region
- OH = H strnad origin of rep
- OL = L strand origin of rep
Does mammalian mtDNA have non coding DNA?
- no introns
- but some area of non coding DNA, eg. D loop, OL
How do mts increase SA, and why is this needed?
- cristae
- for oxphos
Do mts always act independently, why?
- fuse together to form diverse networks t/o cell
- do this at diff stages t/o cell cycle
What is meant by intergenomic communication?
- transcrip and translation of mtDNA is dependant of effective interaction with nucleus
How much does mt genome vary in size between species?
- 16-18kb in mammals
- 75kb in yeast
- up to 400kb in plants
Why does mt genome size vary between species?
- presence and sizes of introns
- also considerable difference in genes encoded, reflecting many changes since endosymbiotic event (movement of genes/loss of genes if redundant etc.)
Why does mtDNA have a v variable copy no?
- multiple genomes per organelle, multiple organelles per cell
How does copy no. vary between somatic and germline cells?
- 20-200 in somatic cells
- over 200,000 in mature oocyte
Where does mtDNA originate from, what is the evidence from this?
- bacterial origins
- mt ribosomes differ
- variation in triplet code (eg. UGA usually stop, but in mtDNA encodes Trp)
What are the diff complexes of ETC?
- Complex I = NADH deHase
- Complex II = succinate deHase
- Complex III = cytochrome c reductase
- Complex IV = cytochrome c oxidase
- Complex V = ATP synthase
Are any of the ETC complexes entirely nuclear encoded?
- only complex II
What is the consequence of the fact that vital cellular apparatus is encoded by 2 genomes?
- need effective communication between them for normal cellular function
What are the features of mtDNA rep?
- 2 origins of rep: OH and OL –> most genes encoded by H, few by L
- transcrip commences from HSP and LSP
mtDNA rep, dep on transcrip of short section from LSP - TFs, cofactor and pols all nuclear encoded → need these factors to come together and interact for effective rep
What is TFAM?
- essential mt transcrip factor
What is special about POLG?
- DNA pol that is only mitochondrial
What was an experiment which showed TFAM was essential for maintaining mtDNA copy no. and for ETC function?
- actin is control
- w/o TFAM mtDNA can’t be maintained (in homozygous KO) –> shown by PCR
- levels TFAM less in heterozygote
- TFAM +/- = reduced mtDNA copy no., reduced mtDNA transcript and ETC dysfunction in heart
- TFAM -/- = severe mtDNA depletion, abolished OP, enlarged mt, growth retardation, die prior to embryonic day E10.5
How does TFAM reg mtDNA rep?
- binds LSP
- together w/ complex of other factors enables transcrip of entire copy of L stand and short primer for rep (both from LSP)
- get transition from RNA to DNA, POLG recruited
- rep of H strand –> need TFAM to bind before mt rep
What are the roles of TFAM?
- req for transcrip from LSP and HSP –> so essential for mtDNA rep
- levels may directly control mtDNA copy no.
- also important packaging role and most abundant prot in mt nucleoids (another is mtSSB, a mt ss DNA BP)
- nucleoid prots reg stability, rep, transcrip and segregation of mtDNA
What is the structure of TFAM?
- high mobility group box A and B joined by linker dom
- short C-ter dom attached to HMG-box B
- binding recognition site upstream of HSP and LSP
How does TFAM binding to LSP and HSP affect the structure of mtDNA, and why is this important?
- forces mtDNA into U shape
- structurally important for activation of transcrip from these 2 sites
Why might there be problems if have mt and nDNA from diff source (/species) and how might this affect OP?
- if changes in seq (recognition/binding sites) then wont get same binding (more/less effective) → so more/less trancrip
How does nuclear and mtDNA interplay?
- nuclear encoded enz req for mtDNA transcrip and rep
- co-assembly of nuclear encoded and mtDNA encoded subunits of resp chain complexes
- majority of prots that function in mt are nuclear encoded
- over 1000 nuclear encoded products are essential to mt function
What is the effect of crosses between diff species on mtDNA?
- more diverse species = more problems
- some level of cross species compatibility → resp chain defects when crossed mice with rats, but diff species of mouse were fine
How is mtDNA inherited in humans (and most organisms)?
- maternally (or uniparentally) inherited
How are yeast able to survive loss of mt function, and how is there mtDNA inherited?
- facultative anaerobes, so can gen energy through glycolysis
- inherit mtDNA from both parental cells and therefore have heteroplasmic mtDNA pop → but reversion to homoplasmy w/in 20 cell divisions
What causes variation in mtDNA?
- no recomb of parental alleles, unlike nDNA
- faster mutation rate than nDNA = at least 10x
- high level of variation in D loop as non encoding so fewer consequences, known as hypervariable region
Why does mtDNA have a faster mutation rate then nDNA?
- as no protective histones
- lack of proofreading by POLG
- decreased level of repair in mtDNA
What are the sources of heteroplasmy?
- age related muts
- inheritance of germline mut
- introd of foreign mt to reconstructed embryos
What is the mtDNA bottleneck, and what suggests its existence?
- next gen has quite diff pop, so must be taking small no. from parent
- so must be dramatic reduction in no. mtDNA copies at some point in oogenesis to allow these changes to occur
What are the 3 theories for the mtDNA bottleneck?
1) passive reduction of mtDNA
2) packaging into homoplasmic clusters
3) focal rep of mtDNA
What would a passive reduction of mtDNA involve (a mtDNA bottleneck theory)?
- huge copy no. in oocyte, fertilised, then reduced no. copies after each cell division
- so by chance segregating in diff way to cells that spawn next gen
What would packaging into homoplasmic clusters involve (a mtDNA bottleneck theory)?
- passive reduction not enough
- mt genomes cluster in nucleoids or multiple nucliods cluster, and get segregation of nucleoids/groups of nucleoids
What would a focal rep of mtDNA involve (a mtDNA bottleneck theory)?
= segregation then selective amp of certain mtDNA mols
- random segregation v early in dev
- so genomes distrib at random to each of cells, so cells of next gen have much lower mtDNA copy no.
- after puberty get selective amp