Patterns of numtogenesis in sixteen different mice strains

Abstract

1Numtogenesis is the phenomenon of mitochondrial sequence localisation and integration into the nuclear genome. This is an ongoing process which contributed to the complexity of eukaryotic genomes. The sequences that are integrated into the nuclear genome are called nuclear mitochondrial sequences (numt). numts have a wide variety of applications in tumor biology, phylogenetic studies, forensic research and so on. Mus musculus musculus is the most popular model organism. Numerous mouse strains are used in medical research to model human diseases. Numts were described in the genome of Mus musculus musculus just like in many other species however the characterisation of numts in different mouse strains is missing. In this study we explored the patterns of numtogenesis in 16 mouse strains by aligning the nuclear genomes with the corresponding mitochondria. Investigation of numts shed light on strain specific differences and resembles the phylogenetic relationships as to our current knowledge in most of the cases.