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Researchers have linked
disease to mitochondrial mutations and physiological senescence to the
cumulative
effects of oxidative injury to mitochondria. In the laboratory we study the
link between aging and mitochondrial DNA.
Mitochondrial DNA has been widely employed as an evolutionary
marker to study the process of molecular evolution and to infer phylogeographic
and phylogenetic patterns. We study the selective forces that influence the evolution
of mitochondrial DNA. One particularly interesting force is the alpha proteobacteria
Wolbachia.
Drosophila
simulans is our organism of choice because it has three distinct mitochondrial
haplogroups (siI, -II, and -III). The high interhaplogroup divergence
allows us to test the role of the mitochondrial genotype. The low intrahaplogroup
variation enables us to replicate our studies with independently collected flies.
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