Multilevel selection and the integrity of mitochondrial DNA

这个项目旨在研究细胞器如何以及为什么保持无性的进化难题。有性繁殖的普遍发生表明，性行为对生物体是有益的。然而，我们都携带着一个从未发生过性行为的古老基因组--线粒体基因组(MtDNA)。理论预测线粒体DNA应该不复存在，因为没有有性繁殖，它就会积累有害的突变，而不能积累有益的突变。然而，mtDNA没有遭受突变的崩溃，并被证明是适应的。这个项目将解释，提出了两个特征的组合，即单亲遗传和每个细胞的多个基因组，如何弥补性别的缺乏。该项目希望为线粒体保持健康的进化问题提供解释，这一问题很重要，因为线粒体影响衰老和健康。

This project aims to investigate the evolutionary conundrum of how and why organelles remain asexual. The widespread occurrence of sexual reproduction suggests that sex is beneficial to organisms. Yet we all carry an ancient genome that never had sex, the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA). Theory predicts that mtDNA should no longer exist, because without sex it accumulates deleterious mutations and cannot accumulate beneficial ones. Yet mtDNA does not suffer mutational meltdown and is shown to adapt. This project will explain how, proposing that the combination of two traits, uniparental inheritance and multiple genomes per cell, make up for the lack of sex. This project expects to provide an explanation for the evolutionary question of what keeps mitochondria healthy, important as mitochondria affect ageing and health.