Summary
Segments of the Japanese quail mito-chondrial genome encompassing many tRNA and protein genes, the small and part of the large rRNA genes, and the control region have been cloned and sequenced. Analysis of the relative position of these genes confirmed that the tRNAGlu and ND6 genes in galliform mitochondrial DNA are located immediately adjacent to the control region of the molecule instead of between the cytochrome b and ND5 genes as in other vertebrates. Japanese quail and chicken display another distinctive characteristic, that is, they both lack an equivalent to the light-strand replication origin found between the tRNACys and tRNAAsn genes in all vertebrate mitochondrial genomes sequenced thus far. Comparison of the protein-encoding genes revealed that a great proportion of the substitutions are silent and involve mainly transitions. This bias toward transitions also occurs in the tRNA and rRNA genes but is not observed in the control region where transversions account for many of the substitutions. Sequence alignment indicated that the two avian control regions evolve mainly through base substitutions but are also characterized by the occurrence of a 57-bp deletion/addition event at their 5′ end. The overall sequence divergence between the two gallinaceous birds suggests that avian mitochondrial genomes evolve at a similar rate to other vertebrate mitochondrial DNAs.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Anderson S, Bankier AT, Barrell BG, DeBruijn MHL, Coulson AR, Drouin J, Eperon IC, Nierlick DP, Roe BA, Sanger F, Schreier PH, Smith AJH, Staden R, Young IG (1981) Sequence and organization of the human mitochondrial genome. Nature 290: 457–464
Anderson S, DeBruijn MHL, Coulson AR, Eperon IC, Sanger F, Young IG (1982) The complete sequence of bovine mito-chondrial DNA: conserved features of mammalian mito-chondrial genome. J Mol Biol 156: 683–717
Bibb MJ, Van Etten RA, Wright CT, Walberg MW, Clayton DA (1981) Sequence and gene organization of mouse mitochondrial DNA. Cell 26: 167–180
Brown GG, Simpson MV (1982) Novel features of animal mtDNA evolution as shown by sequences of two rat cytochrome oxidase subunit II genes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 79: 3246–3250
Brown WM, George M, Wilson AC (1979) Rapid evolution of animal mitochondrial DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76: 1967–1971
Brown WM, Prager EM, Wong A, Wilson AC (1982) Mitochondrial DNA sequences of primates: tempo and mode of evolution. J Mol Evol 18: 225–239
Clary DO, Wolstenholme DR (1985) The mitochondrial DNA molecule ofDrosophila yakuba: nucleotide sequence, gene organization, and genetic code. J Mol Evol 22: 252–271
Dale R, McClure BA, Houchins S (1985) A rapid single-stranded cloning strategy for producing a sequential series of over-lapping clones for use in DNA sequencing: application to sequencing the corn mitochondrial 18S rDNA. Plasmid 13: 31–40
DeSalle R, Freedman T, Prager EM, Wilson AC (1987) Tempo and mode of sequence evolution in mitochondrial DNA of HawaiianDrosophila J Mol Evol 26: 157–164
Desjardins P, Morais R (1990) Sequence and gene organization of the chicken mitochondrial genome: a novel gene order in higher vertebrates. J Mol Biol 212: 599–634
Desjardins P, L'Abbé D, Lang FB, Morais R (1989) Putative chicken muscle-specific 7S RNA is related to the mitochondrial ATPase 6 gene. J Mol Biol 207: 625–629
Doda JN, Wright CT, Clayton DA (1981) Elongation of dis-placement-loop strands in human and mouse mitochondrial DNA is arrested near specific template sequences. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 78: 6116–6120
Dunon-Bluteau D, Brun G (1986) The secondary structures of theXenopus laevis and human mitochondrial small ribosomal RNA subunit are similar. FEBS Lett 198: 333–338
Ferris SD, Wilson AC, Brown WM (1981) Evolutionary tree for apes and human based on cleavage maps of mitochondrial DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 78: 2432–2436
Gadaleta G, Pepe G, De Candia G, Quagliariello C, Sbisà E, Saccone C (1989) The complete nucleotide sequence of theRattus norvegicus mitochondrial genome: cryptic signals revealed by comparative analysis between vertebrates. J Mol Evol 28: 497–516
Glaus KR (1980) Structure, organization and evolution of avian mitochondrial DNA. PhD dissertation, Ohio State University, Columbus
Glaus KR, Zassenhaus HP, Fechheimer NS, Perlman PS (1980) Avian mtDNA: structure, organization and evolution. In: Kroon AM, Saccone C (eds). Organization and expression of the mitochondrial genome, vol 2. Elsevier/North-Holland Biochemical Press, pp 131–135
Hixson JE, Wong TN, Clayton DA (1986) Both the conserved stem-loop and divergent 5′-flanking sequences are required for initiation at the human mitochondrial origin of light-strand DNA replication. J Biol Chem 261: 2384–2390
Kocher TD, Thomas WK, Meyer A, Edwards SV, Pääbo S, Villablanca FX, Wilson AC (1989) Dynamics of mitochondrial DNA evolution in animals: amplification and sequencing with conserved primers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 86: 6196–6200
L'Abbé D, Lang BF, Desjardins P, Morais R (1990) Histidine tRNA from chicken mitochondrial has an uncoded 5′-terminal guanylate residue. J Biol Chem 265: 2988–2992
Morais R, Desjardins P, Turmel C, Zinkewich-Péotti K (1988) Development and characterization of continuous avian cell lines depleted of mitochondrial DNA. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol 24: 649–658
Moritz C, Brown WM (1986) Tandem duplication of D-loop and ribosomal RNA sequences in lizard mitochondrial DNA. Science 233: 1425–1427
Moritz C, Brown WM (1987) Tandem duplications in animal mitochondrial DNAs: variation in incidence and gene content among lizards. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 84: 7183–7187
Nei M, Li WH (1979) Mathematical model for studying genetic variation in terms of restriction endonucleases. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76: 5269–5273
Ojala D, Montoya J, Attardi G (1981) tRNA punctuation model of RNA processing in human mitochondria. Nature 290: 470–474
Poulton J, Deadman HE, Gardiner RM (1989) Duplication of mitochondrial DNA in mitochondrial myopathy. Lancete I: 236–239
Roe BA, Ma DP, Wilson RK, Wong JFH (1985) The complete nucleotide sequence of theXenopus laevis mitochondrial genome. J Biol Chem 260: 9759–9774
Sanger F, Nicklen S, Coulson AR (1977) DNA sequencing with chain termination inhibitors. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 74: 5463–5467
Stormo GD, Schneider TD, Gold LM (1982) Characterization of translation initiator sites inE. coli. Nucleic Acid Res 10: 2971–2996
Upholt WB, Dawid IB (1977) Mapping of mitochondrial DNA of individual sheeps and goats: rapid evolution in the D-loop region. Cell 11: 571–583
Walberg MN, Clayton DA (1981) Sequence and properties of the human KB cell and mouse L-cell D-loop regions of mitochondrial DNA. Nucleic Acids Res 9: 5411–5421
Wong TW, Clayton DA (1985) In vitro replication of human mitochondrial DNA: accurate initiation at the origin of light-strand synthesis. Cell 42: 951–958
Wong JFH, Ma DP, Wilson RK, Roe BA (1983) DNA sequence of theXenopus laevis mitochondrial heavy and light strand replication origins and flanking tRNA genes. Nucleic Acids Res 11: 4977–4995
Zwieb C, Glotz C, Brimacombe R (1981) Secondary structure comparisons between small subunit ribosomal RNA molecules from six different species. Nucleic Acids Res 9: 3621–3640
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Desjardins, P., Morais, R. Nucleotide sequence and evolution of coding and noncoding regions of a quail mitochondrial genome. J Mol Evol 32, 153–161 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02515387
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02515387