Skip Navigation



Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access published online on June 13, 2007
Integrative and Comparative Biology, doi:10.1093/icb/icm045
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
47/5/734    most recent
icm045v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Lavrov, D. V.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Key transitions in animal evolution: a mitochondrial DNA perspective

Dennis V. Lavrov1
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

Correspondence: 1E-mail: dlavrov{at}iastate.edu

Animal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is usually depicted as a small and very economically organized molecule with almost invariable gene content, stable gene order, a high rate of sequence evolution, and several unorthodox genetic features. Sampling across different animal phyla reveals that such a description applies primarily to mtDNA of bilaterian animals (such as arthropods or chordates). By contrast, mitochondrial genomes of nonbilaterian animals (phyla Cnidaria, Placozoa, and Porifera) display more variation in size and gene content and, in most cases, lack the genetic novelties associated with bilaterian mtDNA. Outside the Metazoa, mtDNA of the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis, the closest unicellular out-group, is a much larger molecule that contains a large proportion of noncoding DNA, 1.5 times more genes, as well as several introns. Thus, changes in animal mtDNA organization appear to correlate with two main transitions in animal evolution: the origin of multicellularity and the origin of the Bilateria. Studies of mtDNA in nonbilaterian animals provide valuable insights into these transitions in the organization of mtDNA and also supply data for phylogenetic analyses of the relationships of early animals. Here I review recent progress in the understanding of nonbilaterian mtDNA and discuss the advantages and limitations of mitochondrial data sets for inferences about the phylogeny and evolution of animals.

From the symposium "Key Transitions in Animal Evolution" presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 3–7, 2007, at Phoenix, Arizona.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Genome ResHome page
D. M. Rand
'Why genomes in pieces?' revisited: Sucking lice do their own thing in mtDNA circle game
Genome Res., May 1, 2009; 19(5): 700 - 702.
[Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
M. E. Rumpho, J. M. Worful, J. Lee, K. Kannan, M. S. Tyler, D. Bhattacharya, A. Moustafa, and J. R. Manhart
From the Cover: Horizontal gene transfer of the algal nuclear gene psbO to the photosynthetic sea slug Elysia chlorotica
PNAS, November 18, 2008; 105(46): 17867 - 17871.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.