Extranuclear DNA
- Related Topics:
- genetics
- gene
- chimera
- chromosome
- DNA
All of the genetic information in a cell was initially thought to be confined to the DNA in the chromosomes of the cell nucleus. It is now known that small circular chromosomes, called extranuclear, or cytoplasmic, DNA, are located in two types of organelles found in the cytoplasm of the cell. These organelles are the mitochondria in animal and plant cells and the chloroplasts in plant cells. Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) contains genes that are involved with aspects of photosynthesis and with components of the special protein-synthesizing apparatus that is active within the organelle. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) contains some of the genes that participate in the conversion of the energy of chemical bonds into the energy currency of the cell—a chemical called adenosine triphosphate (ATP)—as well as genes for mitochondrial protein synthesis.
The cells of several groups of organisms contain small extra DNA molecules called plasmids. Bacterial plasmids are circular DNA molecules; some carry genes for resistance to various agents in the environment that would be toxic to the bacteria (e.g., antibiotics). Many fungi and some plants possess plasmids in their mitochondria; most of these are linear DNA molecules carrying genes that seem to be relevant only to the propagation of the plasmid and not the host cell.
Heredity and evolution
At the centre of the theory of evolution as proposed by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace were the concepts of variation and natural selection. Hereditary variants were thought to arise naturally in populations, and then these were either selected for or against by the contemporary environmental conditions. In this way, subsequent generations either became enriched or impoverished for specific variant types. Over the long term, the accumulation of such changes in populations could lead to the formation of new species and higher taxonomic categories. However, although hereditary change was basic to the theory, in the 19th-century world of Darwin and Wallace, the fundamental unit of heredity—the gene—was unknown. The birth and proliferation of the science of genetics in the 20th century after the discovery of Mendel’s laws made it possible to consider the process of evolution by natural selection in terms of known genetic processes.
Population genetics
Because the processes of variation and selection take place at the population level, the basic theory of the genetics of evolutionary change is contained in the general area known as population genetics.
A simple way of viewing evolutionary change at the genotypic level would be to invent some hypothetical ancestral genotype, such as AAbbccDDEE, and an “evolved” derivative, such as aaBBccddee. (For illustrative purposes, only five genes are used, and these are assumed to be all homozygous.) Also, for simplicity it can be assumed that in both the ancestral and the evolved populations all individuals are identical. Clearly for all the genes except cc, a new allele completely replaces the original allele, and the new alleles can be either dominant or recessive. For example, in the case of the first gene, in the ancestral population all alleles are A, and in the evolved population all are a. For a to replace A, the population must go through stages in which there are mixtures of A and a alleles present in the population at the same time. In population genetics, allele frequency is the measurement of the commonness of an allele. The convention is to let the frequency of a dominant allele be p and that of a recessive allele q. Both are generally expressed as decimal fractions. In the above example, p changes from 1 to 0, and q changes from 0 to 1. Since there are only two alleles in this example, p + q must always equal 1. In the intermediate stages, there must be times when there are intermediate allele frequencies, for example when p = 0.4 and q = 0.6.
What can be said about genotype frequencies in the intermediate populations? In the ancestral and derived populations there must have been the following genotypic frequencies: Ancestral AA = 1, Aa = 0, aa = 0 Evolved AA = 0, Aa = 0, aa = 1 Intuitively it seems that, in the intermediate stages, there must be more-complex proportions, including some heterozygotes. One possible intermediate stage is as follows: AA = 0.30, Aa = 0.20, aa = 0.50 The allele frequencies at such an intermediate stage can be calculated by “adding up” the alleles. Hence, the frequency of A will be 0.30 plus 1/2 of 0.20 because the heterozygotes only carry one A allele. This is written p = 0.30 + 0.20/2 = 0.40 Similarly, q = 0.50 + 0.20/2= 0.60 (Noting these values for p and q, it is possible that this could have been the population discussed earlier, in which these specific values for p and q were hypothesized.)
In general, if D = frequency of homozygous dominants, R = frequency of homozygous recessives, and H = frequency of heterozygotes, then p = D + H/2 and q = R + H/2
This section has shown the importance of the concepts of allele frequency and genotype frequency in describing the genetic structure of populations. Of these, allele frequency is the simpler descriptor, and it forms the central tool of population genetics. Hence, the genetic basis of evolutionary change at the population level is described in terms of changes of allele frequencies.
Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium
It is a curious fact that populations show no inherent tendency to change allele or genotype frequencies. In the absence of selection or any of the other forces that can drive evolution, a population with given values of p and q will settle into a special stable set of genotypic proportions called a Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. This principle was first realized by Godfrey Harold Hardy and Wilhelm Weinberg in 1908. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium of a population with allele frequencies p and q is defined by the set of genotypic frequencies p2 of AA, 2pq of Aa, and q2 of aa.
When such a population reproduces itself to make a new generation, the lack of change is made apparent. It is intuitive that the allele frequencies p and q in the population are also measures of the frequencies of eggs and sperm used in creating a new generation (represented in the formula below). The new generation produced from the zygotes has exactly the same genotypic proportions as the first generation (the parents of the zygote).
Some specific allele frequencies, 0.7 for p and 0.3 for q, can be used to illustrate the calculation of the genotypic frequencies that constitute the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium: p × p = 0.7 × 0.7 = 0.49 of AA 2 × p × q = 2 × 0.7 × 0.3 = 0.42 of Aa q × q = 0.3 × 0.3 = 0.09 of aa When this population reproduces, there will be 0.49 + 0.21 = 0.7 of A gametes and 0.09 + 0.21 = 0.3 of a gametes (see the formulas in the previous section), and, when these gametes combine, the population in the next generation will clearly have the same genotypic proportions as the previous one.
These simple calculations rely on several underlying assumptions. Perhaps the most crucial one is that there is random mating, or mating regardless of the genotype of the partner. In addition, the population must be large, and there can be no other pressures, such as selection, that can change allele frequencies. Despite these stringent requirements, many natural populations that have been studied are in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for the genes under investigation. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium constitutes an important benchmark for population genetic analysis.
If the Hardy-Weinberg principle of population genetics shows that there is no inherent tendency for evolutionary change, then how does change occur? This is considered in the following sections.