Beckenbach, A.T.

Numts and mitochondrial pseudogenes

Prof. Dr. Andrew T. Beckenbach, Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Bc V5A 1S6 Canada. E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Myrmecol. News 12: 217-218 (online 29 June 2009) Issn 1994-4136 (print), Issn 1997-3500 (online) Received 22 May 2009; revision received 2 June 2009; accepted 2 June 2009 Mitochondrial gene sequences are widely used for population and phylogenetic analyses (Simon & al. 2006) and form the basis for current Dna barcoding initiatives (Hebert & al. 2003). A major advantage is the unambiguous homology of the functional mitochondrial genes across the animal kingdom. This "homology" feature extends only to the functional copy of each gene. Duplicates of mitochondrial genes often arise, both as duplications within the mitochondrial genome, and as nuclear insertions of mitochondrial sequences (numts). These duplicates can greatly complicate the use of mitochondrial sequences for phylogenetic reconstruction, while at the same time provide unique opportunities to study the evolution of…

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