ArticleCommunications biology2024
Evolution of a biological thermocouple by adaptation of cytochrome c oxidase in a subterrestrial metazoan, Halicephalobus mephisto.
Article in Communications biology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Introgression of thermal tolerance alleles drives adaptation despite risk of mitonuclear conflict.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Infrared stimulation of mitochondrial metabolism in deep-sea yeast expands the energetic framework of hydrothermal ecosystems.ISME communications · 2026Article
- Gain and Loss of Heterozygosity in the Genome of the Asexual Nematode Halicephalobus mephisto.Journal of molecular evolution · 2025Article
- Molecular aspects of heat stress sensing in land plants.The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2025Review
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Abstract
In this study, we report a biological temperature-sensing electrical regulator in the cytochrome c oxidase of the Devil Worm, Halicephalobus mephisto. This extremophile metazoan was isolated 1.3 km underground in a South African goldmine, where it adapted to heat and potentially to hypoxia, making its mitochondrial sequence a likely target of adaptational change. We obtained the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of this organism and show through dN/dS analysis evidence of positive selection in H. mephisto cytochrome c oxidase subunits. Seventeen of these positively selected amino acid substitutions were located in proximity to the H- and K-pathway proton channels of the complex. Surprisingly, the H. mephisto cytochrome c oxidase completely shuts down at low temperatures (20 °C), leading to a 4.8-fold reduction in the transmembrane proton gradient (ΔΨ
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