The energetics of genome complexity

Nick Lane () and William Martin
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Nick Lane: Evolution and Environment, University College London
William Martin: Institut für Botanik III Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, Universitätsstrasse 1

Nature, 2010, vol. 467, issue 7318, 929-934

Abstract: The bioenergetics of complexity Since the first eukaryotic cell arose from prokaryotes about four billion years ago, prokaryotes have shown little tendency to evolve greater complexity. By contrast, eukaryotic (nucleated) cells form the basis of all complex multicellular life. All eukaryotes either have mitochondria, or once had them and later lost them, placing the origin of the mitochondrion and the eukaryotic cell as perhaps the same event. Why was it so advantageous? Nick Lane and William Martin suggest that, by enabling oxidative phosphorylation across a wide area of internal membranes, mitochondrial genes facilitated a 200,000-fold expansion in the number of genes that can be expressed, vastly increasing the repertoire of novel protein folds, protein interactions and regulatory cascades.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09486

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