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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Genotyping Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the Mitochondrial Genome by Pyrosequencing
Published on: February 10, 2023
The role of climate in human mitochondrial DNA evolution: a reappraisal
Chang Sun1, Qing-Peng Kong, Ya-Ping Zhang
1Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Evolution, and Molecular Biology of Domestic Animals, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.
Abstract:
Previous studies have proposed that selection has been involved in the differentiation of human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and climate was the main driving force. This viewpoint, however, gets no support from the subsequent studies and remains controversial thus far. To clarify this issue, a total of 237 complete mtDNA sequences belonging to autochthonous lineages from South Asia, Oceania, and East Asia were collected to seek for the imprint of selection. Based on nonsynonymous (N) and synonymous (S) substitutions analysis, our results confirmed that purifying selection was the predominant force during the evolution of human mtDNA. However, no significant and extensive difference was detected among these three regions, which did not support the climate adaptation hypothesis but preferred random genetic drift to be the main factor in shaping the current landscape of human mtDNA, at least those from Asian and Oceanian regions.
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