Modeling of Mitochondrial DNA
                        David Samuels, VBI
                           Virginia Tech.
         https://www.vbi.vt.edu/article/articleview/220

Mitochondria are the organelles responsible for energy production
in almost all cells. These organelles are unusual in that they
contain many copies of a small, circular DNA molecule, separate
from the nuclear chromosomes. The energy-generation function of
mitochondria depends on the genes contained in the mitochondrial
DNA (mtDNA), so mutations in the mtDNA often cause serious
neuromuscular diseases, and are also strongly associated with the
aging process.  In this talk I will give a general description of
our research on mitochondrial genetics. This work has concentrated
on modeling the dynamics of the population of mtDNA molecules in 
single cells. I will also discuss our work that is just beginning 
on the analysis of the mitochondrial genomes of different species, 
and our planned work on modeling the detailed dynamics of the 
mtDNA molecule structure.