The mitochondrion as a hammer
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Evolution: Education and Outreach Open Access
BOOK REVIEW
The mitochondrion as a hammer Logan W. Cole*
Abstract This is a review of Mitonuclear Ecology by Geoffrey E. Hill, which discusses the potential role of mitochondrial-nuclear (mitonuclear) interactions in key evolutionary processes. Keywords: Evolution, Mitochondria, Mitonuclear interactions Main text In a way that is highly meta and perhaps ironic, there is some conflict over the importance of mitonuclear interactions in evolutionary biology. Geoffrey Hill’s Mitonuclear Ecology (2019) is a compelling volume that takes bold positions in these ongoing debates and will surely inspire much work in the eponymous field. Its treatment of several topics in and around the area of mitonuclear interactions is accessible and carefully curated. The volume puts forward a coherent and intriguing worldview of eukaryotic evolution that centers the mitochondrion. It does, however, create some ambiguity between our established understanding and the author’s fascinatingyet-debatable claims about the evolution of mitonuclear interactions and mitochondrial genomes, and their impact on eukaryotic evolution broadly considered. As the author makes very clear in the book’s preface, this is not intended to be an unbiased summary of the subject but rather an overview of, and advocacy for, the centrality of mitonuclear interactions in eukaryotic evolution. The bulk of this volume’s first half provides an excellent introduction to the fundamentals of eukaryotic (nuclear and mitochondrial) genomes, the underlying cell biology of mitochondrial-nuclear interactions, the coevolution of the two compartments, and related areas. This portion is clearly intended as a way for organismal biologists of all levels to begin thinking about mitochondria at molecular and subcellular scales, but the treatment of coevolution, *Correspondence: [email protected] Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
conflict, and cooperation also may help molecular and cell biologists think about mitochondria in an evolutionary context. The volume describes complicated concepts in intuitive terms and provides an accessible overview of the different kinds of relevant experiments; in doing so, it provides a fairly comprehensive framework for one to begin thinking about questions, and even formulating ideas for potential experiments, that meaningfully address the role of mitonuclear interactions in evolution. As someone whose doctoral dissertation work dealt with the evolution of mitochondrial genomes, it occurred to me that this sort of broad treatment that bridges evolutionary and molecular considerations of mitochondria would have come in handy during my qualifying exam. The manner in which complicated concepts are articulated simply and with accessible language is mirrored by the quality of the figures throughout the text, which collapse large amounts of information and arcane concepts into wonderfully tidy and concise images. Early on, for example, there is a figure that manages to comprehensiv
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