Mutational process in protein-coding genes of human mitochondrial genome in context of evolution of Homo genus

Abstract

The human mitochondrial genome, although it has a small size, is characterized by high level of variation, non-uniformly distributed in groups of nucleotide positions that differ in the degree of variability. Considering the mutation process in human mtDNA relative to the mitochondrial genomes of the genus Homo-neandertals, denisova hominin and other primate species, it appears that more than half (56.5%) variable positions in the human mtDNA protein-coding genes are characterized by back (reverse) mutations to the pre-H. sapiens state of mitochondrial genome. It has been found that hypervariable nucleotide positions show a minimal proportion of specific to H. sapiens mutations, and, conversely, a high proportion of mutations (both nucleotide and amino acid substitutions), leading to the loss of Homo-specific variants of polymorphisms. Most often, polymorphisms specific to H. sapiens arise in result of single forward mutations and disappear mainly due to multiple back mutations, including those in the mutational "hotspots".