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

ABSTRACT: In this study, we report a biological 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 complete mitochondrial genome sequence of this organism and show through dN/dS analysis evidence of positive selection in H. mephisto cytochrome c oxidase subunits. Seventeen of these positively selected amino acid substitutions were located in proximity to the H- and K-pathway proton channels of the complex. Surprisingly, the H. mephisto cytochrome c oxidase completely shuts down at low temperatures (20 °C), leadi

SUBMITTER: Guerin MN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11439043 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature