Kinetoplast

Electron micrograph of normal kinetoplast (K) of Trypanosoma brucei

A kinetoplast is a network of circular DNA (called kDNA) inside a mitochondrion that contains many copies of the mitochondrial genome.[1][2] The most common kinetoplast structure is a disk, but they have been observed in other arrangements. Kinetoplasts are only found in Excavata of the class Kinetoplastida. The variation in the structures of kinetoplasts may reflect phylogenic relationships between kinetoplastids.[3] A kinetoplast is usually adjacent to the organism's flagellar basal body, suggesting that it is bound to some components of the cytoskeleton. In Trypanosoma brucei this cytoskeletal connection is called the tripartite attachment complex and includes the protein p166.[4]

  1. ^ Shapiro TA; Englund PT (1995). "The structure and replication of kinetoplast DNA". Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 49: 117–43. doi:10.1146/annurev.mi.49.100195.001001. PMID 8561456.
  2. ^ Shlomai J (2004). "The structure and replication of kinetoplast DNA". Curr. Mol. Med. 4 (6): 623–47. doi:10.2174/1566524043360096. PMID 15357213.
  3. ^ Lukes J, et al. (2002). "Kinetoplast DNA Network: Evolution of an Improbable Structure". Eukaryotic Cell. 1 (4): 495–502. doi:10.1128/ec.1.4.495-502.2002. PMC 117999. PMID 12455998.
  4. ^ Zhao, Z; Lindsay, M. E.; Roy Chowdhury, A; Robinson, D. R.; Englund, P. T. (2008). "P166, a link between the trypanosome mitochondrial DNA and flagellum, mediates genome segregation". The EMBO Journal. 27 (1): 143–54. doi:10.1038/sj.emboj.7601956. PMC 2206137. PMID 18059470.