Published online 24 January 2006
Article |
Rampant polyuridylylation of plastid gene transcripts in the dinoflagellate Lingulodinium
Département de Sciences Biologiques, Institut de Recherche en Biologie Végétale, Université de Montreal 4101 Sherbrooke est, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H1X 2B2
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +1 514 872 9975; Fax: +1 514 872 9406; Email: david.morse{at}umontreal.ca
Received November 24, 2005. Revised December 22, 2005. Accepted December 22, 2005.
Dinoflagellate plastid genes are believed to be encoded on small generally unigenic plasmid-like minicircles. The minicircle gene complement has reached saturation with an incomplete set of plastid genes (18) compared with typical functional plastids (60200). While some of the missing plastid genes have recently been found in the nucleus, it is still unknown if additional genes, not located on minicircles, might also contribute to the plastid genome. Sequencing of tailed RNA showed that transcripts derived from the known minicircle genes psbA and atpB contained a homogenous 3' polyuridine tract of 2540 residues. This unusual modification suggested that random sequencing of a poly(dA) primed cDNA library could be used to characterize the plastid transcriptome. We have recovered only 12 different polyuridylylated transcripts from our library, all of which are encoded on minicircles in several dinoflagellate species. The correspondence of all polyuridylylated transcripts with previously described minicircle genes thus supports the dinoflagellate plastid as harbouring the smallest genome of any functional chloroplast. Interestingly, northern blots indicate that the majority of transcripts are modified, suggesting that polyuridylylation is unlikely to act as a degradation signal as do the heterogeneous poly(A)-rich extensions of transcripts in cyanobacteria and other plastids.
GenBank accession nos DQ264844DQ264867
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