| | |
Summary: Energy transduction anchors
genes in organelles
John F. Allen,1
* Sujith Puthiyaveetil,1
JoĻ rgen StroĻ m,2
and Carol A. Allen2
Summary
The work of mitochondria and chloroplasts is energy
transduction in respiration and photosynthesis. The
physico-chemical mechanisms of bioenergetics do not
directly involve genes and heredity, and furthermore,
redox chemistry is intrinsically mutagenic. Thus the
small, functional genomes of mitochondria and chloro-
plasts are an oddity. Although extensively sequenced
and catalogued, cytoplasmic genomes are still not
explained. Genomic lethargy is not the answer. Some
genes linger from the bacterial ancestors of these
organelles, true, but most have left, and new ones arrive.
There is a mounting case for a massive andindiscriminate
intracellular gene transfer between organelles and the
|
