Kinetoplast

A kinetoplast is a network of circular DNA (called kDNA) inside a mitochondrion that contains many copies of the mitochondrial genome. The most common kinetoplast structure is a disk, but they have been observed in other arrangements. Kinetoplasts are only found in Excavata of the class Kinetoplastida. The variation in the structures of kinetoplasts may reflect phylogenic relationships between kinetoplastids. A kinetoplast is usually adjacent to the organism's flagellar basal body, suggesting that it is bound to some components of the cytoskeleton. In Trypanosoma brucei this cytoskeletal connection is called the tripartite attachment complex and includes the protein p166.