Evolution of a biological thermocouple by adaptation of cytochrome c oxidase in a subterrestrial metazoan.

ABSTRACT: In this study we report a naturally evolved temperature-sensing electrical regulator in the cytochrome c oxidase of the Devil Worm, Halicephalobus mephisto. This extremophile metazoan was isolated 1.3 km underground in a South African goldmine, where it adapted to heat and potentially to hypoxia, making its mitochondrial sequence a likely target of adaptational change. We obtained the full mitochondrial genome sequence of this organism, and show through dN/dS analysis statistically robust evidence of positive selection in H. mephisto cytochrome c oxidase subunits. Seventeen of these positively-selected amino acid substitutions were localized in proximity to the H- and K-pathway proton channels of the complex. Surprisingly, the H. mephisto cytochrome c oxidase proton pu

SUBMITTER: Guerin MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10723328 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature