Chapter 7: Mitochondria

MITOCHONDRIA
It is rare to observe more than two or three sites of DNA in a single thin section of a
mitochondrion. The example on the facing page, from cultured adrenal, is unusually
large and shows a greater than normal number of DNA filaments. The abnormal
environment in vitro may have resulted in growth of the organelle and DNA replication
without subsequent division.
When disrupted mitochondria are spread by surface tension on a film of water and
the liberated DNA is collected on an electron microscope grid, it appears in the form of
circular filaments such as that shown in the lower figure. These circular DNA molecules
are 5 to 6 pm long, have a molecular weight of about 10 million and consist of 15 to 17
kilobase pairs. There are normally from 3 to 6 per mitochondrion. The maximum coding
capacity of this relatively small amount of DNA is estimated to be only about 5000 amino
acids (Borst et al., 1967). Mitochondria1 DNA codes for two ribosomal RNAs and a set
of transfer RNAs. Evidence for mitochondria1 messenger RNAs is still indirect but it
seems clear that each mitochondrion has all of the ingredients necessary for transcription
of the genetic information carried in its DNA. However, it is apparent from the limited
coding capacity of its small genome, that the mitochondrion must be dependent upon the
nuclear genome to direct the synthesis of many of its constituents.
Figure 228. Mitochondrion from an organ culture of rat adrenal. (Micrograph courtesy of Arvi
Kahri.)
Figure 229. Mitochondrial DNA molecule from an oocyte of Xenopus laevis. (Micrograph courtesy of
Igor Dawid.)
Figure 228, upper Figure 229, lower