Manuscript submitted to: Volume 1, 2013, 1-26. AIMS Molecular Science DOI: 10.3934/molsci.2013.1.1 Received date 13 October 2013, Accepted date 27 November 2013, Published date 12 December 2013 Review Implication of bidirectional promoters containing duplicated GGAA motifs of mitochondrial function-associated genes Fumiaki Uchiumi 1,4 *, Makoto Fujikawa 2, Satoru Miyazaki 3 and Sei-ichi Tanuma 2,4 1 Department of Gene Regulation, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science,Yamazaki 2641, Noda-shi, Chiba-ken 278-8510, Japan 2 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, Yamazaki 2641, Noda-shi, Chiba-ken 278-8510, Japan 3 Department of Bioinformatics, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, Yamazaki 2641, Noda-shi, Chiba-ken 278-8510, Japan 4 Research Center for RNA Science, RIST, Tokyo University of Science, Yamazaki 2641, Noda-shi, Chiba-ken 278-8510, Japan * Correspondence: E-mail:
[email protected]; Tel: +81-4-7121-3616; Fax: +81-4-7121-3608. Abstract: Mitochondria are well known as the primary required organelle in all eukaryotic cells. They have their own mtDNA containing genes that encode tRNAs, rRNAs and a set of functional proteins required for energy (ATP) production. However, almost all (99%) of mitochondrial proteins are encoded by host nuclear genes. Therefore, expression of mitochondrial protein-encoding genes should be regulated similarly to genes that are present in the host nuclear chromosomes. Interestingly, from genomic database assisted surveillance, it was revealed that a lot of mitochondrial function associated protein-encoding genes are oppositely linked in a head-head manner.