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Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2012

University of New Orleans

: nuclear translocation, mitochondrial DNA, numt, great ape, primate, evolution, conservation genetics

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Evolution Of Nuclear Integrations Of The Mitochondrial Genome In Great Apes And Their Potential As Molecular Markers, Ivan D. Soto-Calderon Aug 2012

Evolution Of Nuclear Integrations Of The Mitochondrial Genome In Great Apes And Their Potential As Molecular Markers, Ivan D. Soto-Calderon

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The mitochondrial control region (MCR) has played an important role as a population genetic marker in many taxa but sequencing of complete eukaryotic genomes has revealed that nuclear integrations of mitochondrial DNA (numts) are abundant and widespread across many taxa. If left undetected, numts can inflate mitochondrial diversity and mislead interpretation of phylogenetic relationships. Comparative analyses of complete genomes in humans, orangutans and chimpanzees, and preliminary studies in gorillas have revealed high numt prevalence in great apes, but rigorous comparative analyses across taxa have been lacking.

The present study aimed to systematically compare the evolutionary dynamics of MCR numts in …