Published online 5 August 2005
Article |
The Rhodomonas salina mitochondrial genome: bacteria-like operons, compact gene arrangement and complex repeat region
Département de Biochimie, Robert Cedergren Research Center for Bioinformatics and Genomics, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Université de Montréal 2900 Boulevard Edouard-Montpetit, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3T 1J4 1Cell Biology, Philipps-University Marburg Karl-von-Frisch-Strasse, D35032 Marburg, Germany
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1 514 343 6111, ext. 2721; Fax: +1 514 343 2210; Email: amy.hauth{at}umontreal.ca
Received June 29, 2005. Revised July 21, 2005. Accepted July 21, 2005.
To gain insight into the mitochondrial genome structure and gene content of a putatively ancestral group of eukaryotes, the cryptophytes, we sequenced the complete mitochondrial DNA of Rhodomonas salina. The 48 063 bp circular-mapping molecule codes for 2 rRNAs, 27 tRNAs and 40 proteins including 23 components of oxidative phosphorylation, 15 ribosomal proteins and two subunits of tat translocase. One potential protein (ORF161) is without assigned function. Only two introns occur in the genome; both are present within cox1 belong to group II and contain RT open reading frames. Primitive genome features include bacteria-like rRNAs and tRNAs, ribosomal protein genes organized in large clusters resembling bacterial operons and the presence of the otherwise rare genes such as rps1 and tatA. The highly compact gene organization contrasts with the presence of a 4.7 kb long, repeat-containing intergenic region. Repeat motifs
40700 bp long occur up to 31 times, forming a complex repeat structure. Tandem repeats are the major arrangement but the region also includes a large,
3 kb, inverted repeat and several potentially stable
4080 bp long hairpin structures. We provide evidence that the large repeat region is involved in replication and transcription initiation, predict a promoter motif that occurs in three locations and discuss two likely scenarios of how this highly structured repeat region might have evolved.
DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank accession no. NC_002572
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