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Mitochondria importance articles
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42 of 176 articles · updated 2026-09-18T14:04Z
- biorxiv2026-09-08score 94mtDNAtherapeuticsmetabolism
A TYMP mRNA-lipid nanoparticle resets blood nucleosides in a mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome within hours
Mitochondrial neurogastrointestinal encephalomyopathy is a thymidine-phosphorylase failure that poisons mitochondrial nucleotide pools systemically. Intravenous human TYMP mRNA in lipid nanoparticles puts the enzyme in mouse liver, is tolerated, and returns circulating nucleosides to wild-type in hours for up to three weeks at 0.25 mg/kg. Subcutaneous dosing works if you add hyaluronidase.
Source preprint: mRNA-LNP therapy restores systemic nucleoside imbalance in a mitochon-drial DNA depletion syndrome
- biorxiv2026-08-14score 94OXPHOSmetabolismneurobiology
POLG occipital epilepsy is an immunometabolic lesion: OXPHOS collapse meets innate inflammation in visual cortex
In 12 post-mortem POLG-related epilepsy brains, occipital cortex (BA17) loses mitochondrial proteins and gains an innate-immune proteome, including OXPHOS-poor microglia. Control visual cortex is already richer in OXPHOS and interneuron proteins than frontal cortex — a baseline that may explain why status epilepticus detonates occipitally in this mitochondrial disease.
Source preprint: Neuroinflammation and metabolic dysfunction in POLG-related mitochondrial epilepsy
- biorxiv2026-08-13score 92mtDNAOXPHOSmetabolism
Past 70% mtDNA heteroplasmy, cells need pyruvate carboxylase — or exogenous asparagine — to keep translating
Isogenic mtDNA-deletion lines show linear loss of respiration with heteroplasmy, but redox stress, ISR, and translation failure only after discrete thresholds (~50% and ~70%). Those late defects reverse with asparagine or pyruvate carboxylase overexpression. Respiration-deficient cells become asparagine auxotrophs when PC is low — and L-asparaginase shrinks a high-heteroplasmy, low-PC thyroid tumor model.
Source preprint: Respiration-Deficient Cells Require Pyruvate Carboxylase to Suppress Asparagine Auxotrophy
- medrxiv2026-08-25score 90mtDNAgeneticsmetabolism
251,512 biobank genomes already held mitochondrial DNA. This pipeline finally calls it.
A portable Mitoverse mtDNA-Server 2 Fusion workflow, run natively at Mount Sinai (54,151 whole-exome participants) and reimplemented under All of Us Workbench constraints (197,361 whole-genome participants), produced 12.9 million mitochondrial DNA variant observations across 251,512 people without new sequencing. The missing product was never the reads. It was a harmonized, heteroplasmy-aware call set that biobanks would actually ship.
Source preprint: A Scalable Framework for Harmonized mtDNA Analysis Across Diverse Biobanks
- biorxiv2026-09-03score 89infectionfusionmtDNA
HSV-1 shreds mtDNA and OPA1 so mitochondria shrink to the nucleus and serve the virus
HSV-1 uses UL12.5 to erase mitochondrial DNA and the biogenesis factors PGC-1alpha and TFAM. Independently it activates OMA1 to cleave OPA1, drops MFN2, and down-modulates TIM23, so the network fragments and huddles perinuclearly. Fail to make those changes and the infection suffers. Mitophagy is still held off (abstract cuts there).
Source preprint: Herpes simplex virus 1 subverts the mitochondrial network to support the infection: A lesson on mitochondrial versatility
- biorxiv2026-09-04score 88fusioncardiologymtDNA
A rare de novo OPA1 Pro188Leu fragmentates cardiomyocyte mitochondria and tanks ATP and respiration
Whole-exome sequencing of dilated-cardiomyopathy cases finds a rare de novo OPA1 c.563C>T (p.Pro188Leu). Models predict a 3.5 angstrom distortion and easier OMA1 access, hence more cleavage and fission. In H9C2 cells the mutant lowers OPA1 protein, fragments mitochondria, drops membrane potential, ATP, and oxygen consumption, raises cytosolic calcium and ROS, cuts mtDNA copy number, and turns on intrinsic apoptosis marks.
Source preprint: Implication of a rare variant in OPA1 in Cardiac Pathophysiology: From Cristae Remodelling to Contractile Dysfunction
- biorxiv2026-08-20score 86immunologymtDNAcomputational
Ancient human mtDNA encrypts antimicrobial peptides; 14 kill bacteria and one works in mouse skin
Mining 2,025 ancient human mitochondrial genomes produced 65 encrypted peptide candidates the authors call mitochondrins. Thirty-eight were synthesized; 14 killed clinically relevant Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Activity tracked hydrophobic-cationic patterning, not length or charge alone, and one peptide reduced bacterial burden in a murine skin-abscess model.
Source preprint: Ancient human mitochondrial genomes encode antimicrobial peptides
- medrxiv2026-09-08score 82mtDNAophthalmologybiomarkers
Lower blood mitochondrial DNA copy number tracks faster visual-field loss in open-angle glaucoma
In 200 people with primary open-angle glaucoma followed for about 11 years, fewer mitochondrial DNA copies in blood leukocytes associate with a steeper slide in visual-field mean deviation. The link is strongest when peak intraocular pressure is not the obvious villain, which makes systemic mtDNA copy number a candidate reserve marker, not a pressure surrogate.
Source preprint: Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number Is Associated With Visual Field Progression in Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma
- biorxiv2026-09-03score 82mtDNAdevelopmentoocyte
The mouse oocyte Balbiani body comes back in growing follicles to keep selecting mitochondria
The mouse Balbiani body, a mitochondria-rich oocyte cloud thought to pause after primordial-follicle birth, reassembles around one microtubule-organizing center during follicle growth, still packed with mitochondria, Golgi, ER, and endosomes. It later disperses as the MTOC and nucleus are moved by microtubule-versus-actin forces. Quality control of organelles is not a one-shot zygotene event.
Source preprint: The mouse oocyte Balbiani body reassembles in growing follicles to continue organelle selection and upon dispersal influences nuclear position
- biorxiv2026-08-21score 81computationalgeneticsmtDNA
Plant mitochondria keep a compact AOX–NAC stress module; human disease genes pile onto an expanded ISR–mtDNA network
An Arabidopsis-versus-human in silico comparison finds the same mitochondrial stress logic in both kingdoms, but not the same architecture. Plants organize alternative respiration and retrograde signaling as a compact AOX–NAC module. Humans expand integrated-stress-response and mtDNA-maintenance neighborhoods — and those expanded modules are the ones enriched for mitochondrial disease genes.
Source preprint: From Plants to Patients: Mitochondrial Stress Signaling as a Systems Framework for Human Disease Vulnerability
- biorxiv2026-08-21score 80mtDNAlineage tracingheteroplasmy
mtDNA mutations below 10% heteroplasmy double clonal assignment in barcoded blood cells
Somatic mitochondrial DNA mutations are used as natural single-cell barcodes, but most lineage papers keep only high-heteroplasmy variants. In lentivirally barcoded human hematopoietic cells, after molecule-level error filtering, calls below 10% per-cell heteroplasmy make up about half of lineage-informative mutations. Keeping the full heteroplasmy spectrum roughly doubles the clonal-assignment area under the precision-recall curve versus a greater-than-10% cutoff, and single-molecule-supported calls help when they are retained as a class.
Source preprint: Low-heteroplasmy mitochondrial DNA mutations improve clonal reconstruction of human cells
- biorxiv2026-08-11score 80mtDNAtranslationreproduction
Sperm finish maturation by translating first in a leftover droplet, then on midpiece mitochondria
Transcriptionally silent, cytoplasm-stripped mammalian sperm still need about ten days of epididymal protein synthesis to become motile and fertile. Testicular sperm keep a cytoplasmic droplet with ribosomes and intact tRNAs and make protein there. In the epididymis that droplet fragments and synthesis moves to the midpiece, where mitochondrial translation turns on. Blocking cytosolic translation in testicular sperm or mitochondrial translation in epididymal sperm abolishes motility. Both apparatuses are required for maturation.
Source preprint: Life without cytoplasm: sperm sustain protein production utilizing cytoplasmic droplets and mitochondria as translational apparatuses
- medrxiv2026-08-14score 78neurobiologymetabolismepigenetics
Early KAT6A truncations empty the gene; late ones invert neuronal metabolism and mitochondria
Arboleda-Tham syndrome is not one molecular disease. In patient iPSCs, early-truncating KAT6A variants (exons 1–15) are loss-of-function via nonsense-mediated decay; late-truncating variants (exons 16–17) escape NMD and act as gain-of-function. Those opposite mechanisms invert the direction of change in neuronal gene regulation, metabolism, and mitochondrial physiology, and they split facial gestalt and DNA-methylation episignatures. Therapy splits with them: inhibit KAT6A for late truncations; rescue dosage for early ones.
Source preprint: Dominant truncating variants in KAT6A cause two neurodevelopmental disorders with opposite gene regulatory and metabolic changes.
- biorxiv2026-08-17score 75neurobiologymtDNAmetabolism
Fractionated 20 Gy X-rays senesce F11 sensory neurons and raise mtDNA copy number without a ROS or OCR hit
Four daily 5 Gy X-ray fractions (20 Gy total) leave F11 dorsal-root-ganglion neuron-like cells senescent, with higher mitochondrial DNA copy number and a shifted NAD+/NADH pathway, but without a change in oxygen consumption rate or an oxidative-stress signal 24 hours after the last dose. Gene-expression changes land on mechanoreceptor-fiber programs that can be pro-nociceptive. Radiotherapy-linked chronic pain, in this cell line, is not a simple mitochondrial ROS story.
Source preprint: Fractionated ionising radiation affects cellular functions, and gene expression associated to subpopulation of F11 dorsal root ganglia neurons without inducing oxidative stress
- biorxiv2026-09-09score 74metabolismcancermtDNA
IDH1-mutant gliomas split into quiet mitochondrial one-carbon states and a high-OCM subset that dies sooner
IDH1-mutant gliomas are not one metabolically meek tumor. A 64-gene one-carbon-metabolism score on 709 TCGA/CGGA cases, plus U87 R132H cells, splits a suppressed, mitochondrially compensated state from an aggressive subset that hyperactivates proliferative one-carbon genes and has worse survival (CGGA hazard ratio 1.61).
Source preprint: One-Carbon Metabolic Reprogramming Stratifies Prognosis and Defines Distinct Biological States in IDH1-Mutant Gliomas
- biorxiv2026-09-17score 73mtDNAevolutionmito-nuclear
Broom and Italian hares captured a mountain-hare mitogenome with a matching nuclear payload
Two sister hares, Lepus castroviejoi in Iberia and Lepus corsicanus in Italy, carry fixed mitochondrial genomes from the mountain hare Lepus timidus. Whole mitogenomes, including Iron Age samples, date that capture in their common ancestor. Coalescent modeling of complete genomes puts a roughly 24 percent mountain-hare nuclear contribution near 900 thousand years ago, and about 17.8 percent of autosomes still look introgressed, close to the 18 percent expected under drift. Highly introgressed, gene-dense segments include mitochondrial-function genes that echo mito-nuclear candidates in the Iberian hare.
Source preprint: Extensive nuclear introgression accompanied ancient mitochondrial capture in the common ancestor of two sister hare species
- biorxiv2026-08-19score 70mtDNAevolutiontranslation
Anomiida bivalves rewrite the mitochondrial code: TAA as tyrosine, plus frameshifting
Phylogenomics elevate the APPD bivalve clade (Anomiidae, Placunidae, Plicatulidae, and inferred Dimyidae) to Anomiida ord. nov., sister to Limida and Pectinoidea at about 428 million years. Their mitochondrial genomes show extreme translational plasticity: Pododesmus uses the invertebrate mitochondrial code; Heteranomia uses +1 frameshifting to skip in-frame TAG; Anomia, Enigmonia, Placuna, and Plicatulidae reassign TAA to tyrosine, confirmed by proteomics. That is a new bivalve translation table, sitting next to massive chromosomal fusions (6–13 chromosomes versus 20 ancestral molluscan linkage groups).
Source preprint: Life finds a way: Integrative phylogenomics resolves an overlooked bivalve order with chromosome fusion and mitochondrial translational-code evolution
- biorxiv2026-08-13score 70endosymbiosismtDNAinfection
Australian tick metagenomes recover Midichloria that still look built for life inside mitochondria
Shotgun metagenomes from four Australian tick species yield six MAGs: Coxiella-like endosymbionts, a facultative Rickettsia, and two Midichloria mitochondrii strains (Ixholo1, Ixholo2). The symbionts lack obvious virulence factors and keep B-vitamin and/or heme genes, plus CLE shikimate genes tied to serotonin and blood feeding. Pangenomics suggest Midichloria may be more than one species, and Ixholo2 retains genes associated with an intramitochondrial lifestyle. Tick “microbiomes” here are nutritional, sometimes intra-organelle, partners.
Source preprint: Characterisation and genomic analysis of bacterial nutritional endosymbionts in Australian ticks from shotgun metagenomic sequencing
- biorxiv2026-08-11score 70mtDNAcomputationalpopulation genetics
Medieval Sigtuna ivory is half eastern Atlantic walrus; attached rostra were a western trade
Earlier ancient-DNA work made medieval European walrus look almost entirely Greenlandic because it sampled decorated rostra (skulls with paired tusks). Workshop offcuts from Sigtuna, plus a genome-wide split between western and eastern Atlantic walrus populations (144,986 diagnostic nuclear SNPs, usable on low-coverage data), change that. All medieval rostra still assign west. About half the Sigtuna ivory assigns east, including Iceland and the Barents Sea, and the eastern objects come earlier. Mitochondrial DNA alone could not resolve this. The ivory trade was sequential and broader than the rostrum trade.
Source preprint: Of bone and ivory: Eastern Atlantic sources of the medieval European walrus ivory trade discovered by ancient mitochondrial and nuclear DNA
- biorxiv2026-08-19score 68mtDNAagingevolution
Long-lived termites write a stronger mitochondrial A>G signature all the way into the proteome
An age-associated mitochondrial A>G mutational signature, first described in mammals, is stronger in long-lived termites than in short-lived non-termite cockroaches. The extra A>G pressure is followed by coordinated shifts in synonymous nucleotide composition, codon usage, and amino acid composition. Life history can therefore travel from mutagen exposure through mtDNA spectra into the proteome. Mitochondrial genomes are archives of how a species lives, not only of who it is related to.
Source preprint: From life history to proteome via mutagenesis: an ecological footprint in genome evolution
- biorxiv2026-08-09score 66mtDNAevolutionpopulation genetics
Gilded catfish split at the Rupununi Portal; mtDNA and nuclear SNPs kill the Casiquiare myth
Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii populations in the Orinoco and Amazon are genetically distinct, with no current gene flow, on nuclear microsatellites, ddRADseq, and mitochondrial DNA. A possible secondary contact left a signal in the Boa Vista sample. The split dates to the Rupununi Portal (~2.54 Ma ddRAD, ~1.31 Ma mtDNA), not the Late Miocene Vaupés Arch. The Casiquiare Canal and Japurá-Guaviare headwaters are not the connectors. Orinoco expanded; Amazon stayed demographically quieter. This is historical biogeography that uses mtDNA as a clock, not organelle physiology.
Source preprint: Historical biogeography and population genetic structure of the giant gilded catfish ( Brachyplatystoma rousseauxii ): expanding Humboldtian connectivity routes between the Orinoco and Amazon River basins
- biorxiv2026-08-17score 64computationalcancerproteomics
ProtInt warps cell-line proteomes toward tumors and turns down mitochondrial gene-expression proteins
ProtInt is a deep-learning integrator that aligns label-free proteomes of 771 cancer cell lines and 550 treatment-naïve tumors despite missing values. It beats batch correction and transcriptomic-integration methods at making cell-line and tumor proteomes comparable. After integration, cell-line proteomes that have been warped toward tumors show recurrent gains in immune, cell–cell communication, and ECM proteins, and losses in transcription, RNA processing, and mitochondrial gene-expression proteins. The mitochondrial sentence is a systematic adaptation signature, not a functional assay.
Source preprint: Integration of proteomic data from cell lines and tumors
- biorxiv2026-08-18score 63mtDNAmethodsentomology
Arizona Culex mitogenomes: first USA quinquefasciatus through the AT-rich control region, plus a 905-bp tarsalis insert
Long-range PCR plus PacBio HiFi yields complete, annotated mitochondrial genomes from Arizona West Nile vectors Culex quinquefasciatus (15,587 bp, first USA mitogenome through the AT-rich control region) and Culex tarsalis (16,416 bp, 905 bp longer than California and Texas references because of a control-region insertion). Phylogeny supports the species IDs. The method is aimed at pooled vector-surveillance samples. This is medical entomology infrastructure, not bioenergetics.
Source preprint: Complete mitochondrial genomes of Arizona West Nile virus vectors, Culex quinquefasciatus and Culex tarsalis
- biorxiv2026-08-11score 63cancermtDNAtherapeutics
IOMM-Lee is an NF2-wildtype, TERT-mutant Grade 3 meningioma line with catalogued mtDNA and a drug list
The widely used malignant meningioma line IOMM-Lee is confirmed NF2-wildtype with a pathogenic TERT promoter c.-124C>T variant. The authors add mtDNA variants, short doubling time (19–21 h), high colony-forming efficiency (up to 87%), relative radiosensitivity (D10 ~3.9 Gy) that ATM inhibition (AZD-1390) can worsen, and a 349-compound screen that yields 34 sub-micromolar clinical-use hits. This is a model-characterization resource, including mitochondrial genotypes, not a mitochondrial-mechanism paper.
Source preprint: ‘An NF2- wildtype malignant meningioma cell line for basic and translational science’
- biorxiv2026-08-11score 62mtDNAevolutionpopulation genetics
A hybrid polyploid weevil walked north; mtDNA and SNPs say mate limitation, not a new mutation each mile
In the flightless weevil Catapionus nebulosus group, an all-female polyploid lineage has a single origin, a hybrid signal between two sexual lineages, and a rapid northern expansion. Unmated females produce fertile daughters. Sexual populations already lose effective size and diversity toward the north, south of the contact zone. Mate limitation is the favored explanation for why the parthenogen outruns its sexual relatives. Mitochondrial DNA plus genome-wide SNPs are the historical tools.
Source preprint: Walking Alone to the North: The Origin and Historical Expansion of the Polyploid Parthenogenetic Lineage in a Weevil
- biorxiv2026-08-13score 60mtDNAmethodscomputational
pastForward finishes ancient libraries and screens them for eukaryotic mitochondria at scale
pastForward is a Snakemake pipeline from raw ancient/historical reads to damage-rescaled BAMs, with reports on endogenous content, complexity, and coverage. It maps to multiple references (host plus endosymbiont, COI). Two new tools: ECMSD screens libraries against a mitochondrial reference database for eukaryotic DNA; REVEAL quantifies copy-number of TEs and duplications. Case studies: AMY2B copy number rises across dog domestication including Neolithic samples; the TE opus invades D. melanogaster after the 1800s and is present from 1933. Mitochondria here are a taxonomic detector, not a physiology target.
Source preprint: pastForward: a Snakemake pipeline for ancient and historical DNA with eukaryote-wide taxonomic screening and tracking of copy-number variation
- biorxiv2026-08-09score 60mtDNAevolutionconservation
White-bellied heron genomes: sister to purple heron, chronically small Ne, mitonuclear discordance deeper in the family
The first high-quality Ardea insignis genome (Nanopore plus Illumina), with fewer than 60 wild birds left, shows the species as sister to purple heron, with moderate mitonuclear discordance among deeper ardeids. Heterozygosity is extremely low and runs of homozygosity are extensive versus great blue heron, but short/intermediate ROH plus PSMC say the tiny Ne is old, not only a last-century crash. The two sampled birds differ in long ROH, so recent inbreeding is uneven. The conservation problem is limited adaptive potential after chronic rarity. Mitochondria contribute a phylogeny that is not perfectly nuclear.
Source preprint: The fate of a dynasty: Population genomics uncovers the demographic history of Ardea insignis , one of the rarest bird species in the world
- biorxiv2026-09-16score 58mtDNAconservationpopulation genetics
Saimaa ringed seals keep 5% of mitochondrial diversity and about 1% of Y-chromosome diversity
The endangered Saimaa ringed seal already looked genetically poor on mitochondrial DNA and autosomes. A chromosome-level reference that includes a curated Y chromosome, plus resequencing of 80 animals, now says the paternal lineage is worse: relative to other ringed seals the population retains about 5 percent of mitochondrial diversity and about 1 percent of Y-chromosomal diversity. Both the Y and the mitochondrion are monophyletic against Baltic, Ladoga, and Arctic ringed seals.
Source preprint: A chromosome-level reference genome assembly reveals extreme loss of Y-chromosomal diversity in the Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa saimensis)
- biorxiv2026-09-10score 58mtDNApopulation geneticsphylogeography
A rare Siberian mitochondrial lineage in Nilgiri Kurumba dates Holocene maternal gene flow into South India
Complete mitochondrial genomes from Toda, Kota, and Kurumba tribes in the Nilgiri Hills show deep founder effects and one rare surprise: haplogroup C4a2c1 in Kurumba, a North Asian/Siberian maternal line that Bayesian dates put into the subcontinent about 7,000 years ago. The organelle genome is the clock; the story is Holocene contact, then isolation.
Source preprint: Holocene North Asian gene flow and cryptic substructure in the genome history of Nilgiri tribes
- biorxiv2026-08-14score 58mtDNAevolutionsymbiosis
Pineus strobi adds a 25.3 kb mitogenome and shows adelgid chromosomes barely shuffled for 90 million years
The first Pineus chromosome-scale genome (pine bark adelgid) keeps major linkage groups with Adelges across ~90 million years. Grape phylloxera’s five chromosomes still correspond, with limited fusions/fissions. Aphid-style interautosomal chaos is not an Aphidomorpha-wide rule. The authors also recover a complete 25.3 kb mitochondrial genome with expanded repeat-rich noncoding DNA, circular genomes of the nutritional symbionts Annandia and Hartigia pinicola (syntenic with Pineus similis), and the first complete adelgid Wolbachia. mtDNA is one of several completed circles.
Source preprint: The chromosome-scale genome of the pine bark adelgid reveals conserved macrosynteny across Adelgidae
- biorxiv2026-08-17score 57mtDNAmethodsecology
COI hybridization capture pulls ~450 freshwater invertebrate genera from creek eDNA
Custom RNA baits for regional freshwater arthropod, annelid, and mollusc mitochondrial COI sequences enrich environmental DNA ~1,760-fold over shotgun libraries and build ~400 bp Folmer-region contigs. Along 63 km of Boulder Creek (18 sites, 1,500 m elevation), about 450 genera across 8 phyla appear; richness averages 56 genera per site and tracks a known conventional bioassessment pattern. This is mitochondrial barcode capture as a bioassessment tool.
Source preprint: Targeted hybridization capture enables comprehensive detection of freshwater bioassessment invertebrates from environmental DNA
- biorxiv2026-08-11score 57mtDNAevolutionphylogenomics
Xanthophyte phylogenomics: four origins of simple multicellularity, with mitochondria agreeing on the tree
A 680-gene nuclear tree from 18 xanthophytes (17 new transcriptomes), plus matching plastid (141 genes, 33 species) and mitochondrial (31 genes, 33 species) topologies, rewrites yellow-green algal orders and families. Ancestral reconstruction finds at least four independent unicellular-to-simple-multicellular transitions, each paired with a shift from many autospore-type propagules to single monospore/akinete-type ones; reversions bring autospores back. Mitochondria are a concordant phylogenetic dataset, not a physiology story.
Source preprint: Evolution of multicellularity and reproductive strategies in yellow-green algae (Xanthophyceae, Heterokontophyta)
- biorxiv2026-08-09score 57mtDNAmethodsinvasion biology
Pasture mealybug COI: a 10% mitochondrial split, and one haplotype for the US invasion
The first COI barcode for Heliococcus summervillei reveals ~10.2% mitochondrial divergence between Type A and Type B. All invasive-range samples (United States, Australia, Pakistan, Caribbean) share one haplotype from a recent invasion; Barbados holds two closely related, historically stable haplotypes. The barcode is a regulatory ID tool for a grass-killing mealybug. Mitochondria are the diagnostic molecule.
Source preprint: Development of the First Cytochrome Oxidase I Barcode and Evidence for a Single Haplotype Associated with the Recent United States Invasion of the Pasture Mealybug Heliococcus summervillei (Pseudococcidae, Hemiptera)
- biorxiv2026-08-11score 56mtDNAevolutionpathogen genomics
Colletotrichum cereale’s first chromosome-scale genome includes a mitochondrion and three huge accessory chromosomes
A 58.01 Mb Nanopore/Hi-C/Illumina assembly of C. cereale isolate 6B yields 13 chromosome-scale scaffolds plus a mitochondrial genome (N50 5.44 Mb, 98.6% BUSCO). Three AT-rich, gene-poor accessory chromosomes (2.71, 1.86, 1.36 Mb) are the first chromosome-scale accessory set in this grass anthracnose fungus and among the largest in the genus. They carry predicted effectors, CAZymes, and BGCs and show wild presence-absence variation across isolates. Core genomes still split clades A and B (ANI ~92–99.9%). Mitochondria are an assembled circle in a pathogen genome paper.
Source preprint: A chromosome-scale genome of Colletotrichum cereale reveals a large, dynamic accessory genome within a deeply structured species
- biorxiv2026-09-09score 55mtDNAevolutionecology
Brine-fly mitochondrial lineages sort with the salinity of the water they actually use
Ephydra brine flies in San Francisco Bay salt ponds pick habitats by salinity, and a single-locus mitochondrial genealogy spanning about 40 years and distant sites says those salinity envelopes are not independent of evolutionary relatedness. Extremophile ecology here is partly a mitochondrial-lineage map.
Source preprint: Salinity is associated with habitat use and mitochondrial lineage diversity in halophilic Ephydra flies (Diptera: Ephydridae)
- biorxiv2026-08-15score 55mtDNAmethodsentomology
SDA-500 is a new Anopheles stephensi cell line, stamped male by karyotype and COI
An embryo-derived A. stephensi (SDA-500) line grows in vitro, is identified by mitochondrial COI barcoding, and is at least partly male (diploid karyotype with a Y). TransIT-PRO transfects better than Lipofectamine reagents. Among tested promoters, Anopheles gambiae polyubiquitin is the strongest, most consistent driver in a dual-luciferase assay. The line is a functional-genomics chassis for an urban malaria vector. Mitochondria are the species barcode.
Source preprint: Development and validation of an SDA-500 Anopheles stephensi cell line for molecular studies
- biorxiv2026-08-11score 55mtDNAecologypopulation genetics
Pitcher-plant mites and midges track the host landscape, not each other; chloroplast and COI disagree in useful ways
Across Darlingtonia californica’s patchy range, the plant’s nuclear diversity falls toward the margins (central-marginal) while chloroplast structure is weaker and mainly splits northern Oregon Coast plants, a cytonuclear discordance consistent with seed movement or chloroplast capture. Circuit-theoretic connectivity from an ecological niche model predicts plant gene flow; landscape resistance explains plant and mite differentiation beyond distance. Both the midge and the mite are spatially congruent with the plant, not with each other, so they are not co-dispersing. Mitochondrial COI is the arthropod marker; chloroplast is the plant organelle marker.
Source preprint: Connectivity and dispersal mode shape the landscape genetics of a carnivorous pitcher plant-arthropod metacommunity
- biorxiv2026-09-04score 54mtDNAevolutionspeciation
African giant shrews show mitonuclear discordance from repeated hybridization, not one messy tree
Genome-wide ddRAD plus mitochondrial data across sub-Saharan Crocidura olivieri reveal extensive mitonuclear discordance caused by repeated introgression, three major lineages, four introgression events, and five geographically structured lineages still exchanging genes. Mitochondria here are the discordant tape, not the physiology.
Source preprint: Incipient speciation, rapid expansion and repeated introgressive hybridization in an African Giant Shrew ( Crocidura olivieri )
- biorxiv2026-08-11score 52mtDNAinfectionpublic health
Belitung macaques carry four zoonotic Plasmodium species; complete mitochondria pin local P. knowlesi
Of 163 long-tailed macaques already known as a Brugia malayi reservoir in Belitung, 79.8% are pan-Plasmodium qPCR positive: P. inui 41.7%, P. knowlesi 38.7%, P. coatneyi 24.5%, P. cynomolgi 13.5%, with 37% mixed. 20 of 22 filaria-positive animals also carry at least one Plasmodium. Complete mitochondrial genomes from nine apparent mono-infections confirm seven P. knowlesi plus one P. inui and one P. coatneyi; Belitung P. knowlesi mitochondria cluster with human and monkey samples from Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. A district called malaria-free still has a zoonotic mitochondrial reservoir.
Source preprint: Detection of Plasmodium infections in macaques from areas endemic for brugian filariasis in Belitung District, Indonesia
- biorxiv2026-09-04score 50mtDNApopulation geneticsconservation
Central European wolves now overlap, and mitochondrial haplotypes help name who moved where
A five-year Central European wolf campaign uses mitochondrial haplotypes plus microsatellites to show three ancestries (Central European/Baltic, Carpathian, Alpine) now sit in mosaic sympatry, with asymmetric immigration. The organelle is a lineage tag, not a respiratory-chain result.
Source preprint: Wolf microevolution in the melting pot: range expansion, population sympatry, dynamic mosaic admixture zone and asymmetric gene flow
- biorxiv2026-09-03score 41mtDNAecology
Smoke-fly larvae finally turn up in burnt soil, identified by mitochondrial COI
Microsania smoke flies swarm at Finnish prescribed burns; larvae in burnt soil barcode as Microsania mitochondrial COI, including the first larval description of M. straeleni. The organelle is a species ID tool.
Source preprint: Pyrophilic smoke flies (Diptera: Platypezidae: Microsaniinae) from prescribed burnings in boreal Finland: occurrence and behaviour of adult flies and first observations of immature stages
- biorxiv2026-09-03score 40mtDNAmethods
A demineralization protocol pulls mitochondrial cytochrome b from rotten cetacean bone
Nine environmentally degraded cetacean bones yield 7.3-57.1 ng/uL DNA after EDTA/N-lauroylsarcosine/proteinase K demineralization and silica cleanup. Mitochondrial cytochrome b PCR works in all; five sequences call Balaenoptera physalus. The organelle genome is the ID tool.
Source preprint: Optimizing DNA extraction from environmentally degraded bone samples for molecular identification of cetacean species