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SUMMARY:Evolution of the Mitochondrial Genome and Proteome in Non-Bilateria
 n Animals
LOCATION:Anatomy/Zoology Building W118
TZID:America/Denver
DTSTART:20171301T000000
UID:2026-04-22-19-07-27@natsci.colostate.edu
DTSTAMP:20260422T190727
Description:The union of an archaeon and a proteobacterium at the origin of
  eukaryotic cell was a transformative event in the history of Earth that m
 ade evolution of complex life possible. Mitochondria are the most recogniz
 able vestige of that event as they are semi-autonomous organelles with the
 ir own genome. Although the primary function of mitochondria – the produ
 ction of energy by oxidative phosphorylation – is mainly conserved acros
 s the tree of life\, their structure\, genome organization\, and secondary
  functions show substantial variation. Recently\, we surveyed some of this
  variation in animal mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Although animal mtDNA is t
 ypically described as a uniform molecule\, we discovered substantial diffe
 rences in its size\, organization\, genetic code\, gene content\, presence
 /absence of introns\, tRNA structures\, mRNA processing\, and rates of evo
 lution. Much of that diversity was found in four phyla non-bilaterian anim
 als (Cnidaria\, Ctenophora\, Placozoa\, and Porifera)\, which\, from a phy
 logenetic perspective\, form the major branches of the animal tree along w
 ith Bilateria. We also found that the changes in animal mitochondrial DNA 
 organization correlate closely with changes in the composition of mitochon
 drial proteins that are encoded in the nucleus but imported to mitochondri
 a. Currently\, we are using several bioinformatics approaches to identify 
 and characterize the full mitochondrial proteome in major animal lineages.
  4:00 pm
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