Abstract
We have sequenced a 6.8-kb segment of the Chlamydomonas eugametos chloroplast DNA which contains the psbF, psbL, petG and rps3 genes. As in the distantly related green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, these genes reside in this order (5′→3′) on the same DNA strand, suggesting that such a chloroplast gene cluster was present in the most recent common ancestor of all Chlamydomonas species. For each of the four genes, with the exception of rps3, the C. eugametos and C. reinhardtii coding regions were found to be identical, or very similar, in length, whereas each of the intergenic spacers is substantially longer in C. eugametos than in C. reinhardtii. The central portion of both Chlamydomonas rps3 genes features a long extra coding region relative to other rps3 sequences. We have shown that the insertion sequence in the C. eugametos rps3 is not excised at the RNA level.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Boudreau E, Otis C, Turnel M (1994) Conserved gene clusters in the highly rearranged chloroplast genomes of Chlamydomonas moewusii and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Mol Biol 24: 585–602
Boynton JE, Gillham NW, Newman SM, Harris EH (1992) Organelle genetics and transformation of Chlamydomonas. In: Hermann RG (ed) Plant gene research, vol VI. Springer-Verlag, Vienna, pp 3–64
Buchheim MA, Turmel M, Zimmer EA, Chapman RL (1990) Phylogeny of Chlamydomonas (Chlorophyta) based on cladistic analysis of nuclear 18S rRNA sequence data. J Phycol 26:689–699
Cantrell A, Bryant DA (1988) Nucleotide sequence of the genes encoding cytochrome b-559 from the cyanelle genome of Cyanophora paradoxa. Photosyn Res 16:65–81
Christopher DA, Cushman JC, Price CA, Hallick RB (1988) Organization of ribosomal protein genes rpl23, rpl2, rps19, rpl22 and rps3 on the Euglena gracilis chloroplast genome. Curr Genet 14: 275–286
Cushman JC, Christopher DA, Little MC, Hallick RB, Price CA (1988) Organization of the psbE, psbF, orf38, and orf42 gene loci on the Euglena gracilis chloroplast genome. Curr Genet 13: 173–180
Devereux J, Haeberli P, Smithies O (1984) A comprehensive set of sequence analysis programs for the VAX. Nucleic Acids Res 12: 387–395
Durocher V, Gauthier A, Bellemare G, Lemieux C (1989) An optional group I intron between the chloroplast small subunit rRNA genes of Chlamydomonas moewusii and C. eugametos. Curr Genet 15:277–282
Fong SE, Surzycki SJ (1992a) Chloroplast RNA polymerase genes of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii exhibit an unusual structure and arrangement. Curr Genet 21:485–497
Fong SE, Surzycki SJ (1992b) Organization and structure of plastome psbF, psbL, petG and ORF712 genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Curr Genet 21:527–530
Herrmann RG, Alt J, Schiller B, Widger WR, Cramer WA (1984) Nucleotide sequence of the gene for apocytochrome b-559 on the spinach plastid chromosome: implications for the structure of the membrane protein. FEBS Lett 176:239–244
Higgins DG, Sharp PM (1988) CLUSTAL: a package for performing multiple sequence alignment on a microcomputer. Gene 73: 237–244
Hiratsuka J, Shimada H, Whittier R, Ishibashi T, Sakamoto M, Mori M, Kondo C, Honji Y, Sun C-R, Meng B-Y, Li Y-O, Kanno A, Nishizawa Y, Harai A, Shinozaki K, Sugiura M (1989) The complete sequence of the rice (Oryza sativa) chloroplast genome: intermolecular recombination between distinct tRNA genes accounts for a major plastid DNA inversion during the evolution of the cereals. Mol Gen Genet 217:185–194
Huang C, Wang S, Chen L, Lemieux C, Otis C, Turmel M, Liu X-Q (1994) The Chlamydomonas chloroplast clpP gene contains translated large insertion sequences and is essential for cell growth. Mol Gen Genet (in press)
Kao JS, Wu M, Chiang YM (1990) Cloning and characterization of chloroplast ribosomal protein-encoding genes, rpl16 and rps3, of the marine macro-algae, Gracilaria tenuistipitata. Gene 90: 221–226
Lehrach H, Diamond D, Wozney JM, Boedtker H (1977) RNA molecular weight determinations by gel electrophoresis under denaturing conditions, a critical reexamination. Biochemistry 16: 4743–4751
Lemieux B, Lemieux C (1985) Extensive sequence rearrangements in the chloroplast genomes of the green algae Chlamydomonas eugametos and Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Curr Genet 10: 213–219
Lemieux C, Turmel M, Seligy VL, Lee RW (1985) The large subunit of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase is encoded in the inverted repeat sequence of the Chlamydomonas eugametos chloroplast genome. Curr Genet 9:139–145
Li J, Goldschmidt-Clermont M, Timko MP (1993) Chloroplast-encoded chlB is required for light-independent protochlorophyllide reductase activity in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Cell 5:1817–1829
Liu X-Q, Xu H, Huang C (1993 a) Chloroplast chlB gene is required for light-independent chlorophyll accumulation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Plant Mol Biol 23:297–308
Liu X-Q, Huang C, Xu H (1993 b) The unusual rps3-like orf712 is functionally essential and structurally conserved in Chlamydomonas. FEBS Lett 336:225–230
McLaughlin WE, Larrinua IM (1987) The sequence of the maize plastid encoded rps3 locus. Nucleic Acids Res 15:4689
Ohyama K, Fukuzawa H, Kohchi T, Shirai H, Sano T, Sano S, Umesono K, Shiki Y, Takeuchi M, Chang Z, Aota S, Inokuchi H, Ozeki H (1986) Chloroplast gene organization deduced from complete sequence of liverwort Marchantia polymorpha chloroplast DNA. Nature 322:572–574
Pakrasi HB, Williams JGK, Arntzen CJ (1988) Targeted mutagenesis of the psbE and psbF genes blocks photosynthetic electron transport: evidence for a functional role of cytochrome b 559 in photosystem II. EMBO J 7:325–332
Pakrasi HB, De Ciechi P, Whitmarsh J (1991) Site-directed mutagenesis of the heme axial ligands of cytochrome b 559 affects the stability of the photosystem II complex. EMBO J 10:1619–1627
Palmer JD (1991) Plastid chromosomes: structure and evolution. In: Bogorad L, Vasil IK (eds) Cell culture and somatic cell genetics of plants, vol 7A. The molecular biology of plastids. Academic Press, San Diego, pp 5–53
Reith M, Munholland J (1993) A high-resolution gene map of the chloroplast genome of the red alga Porphyra purpurea. Plant Cell 5:465–475
Sakamoto W, Kindle KL, Stern DB (1993) In vivo analysis of Chlamydomonas chloroplast petD gene expression using stable transformation of β-glucuronidase translational fusions. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 90:497–501
Shinozaki N, Ohme M, Tanaka M, Wakasugi T, Hayashida N, Matsubayashi T, Zaita N, Chunwongse J, Obokata J, Yamaguchi-Shinozaki K, Ohto C, Torazawa K, Meng BY, Sugita M, Deno H, Kamogashira T, Yamada K, Kusuda J, Takaiwa F, Kato A, Tohdoh N, Shimada H, Sugiura M (1986) The complete nucleotide sequence of the tobacco chloroplast genome: its gene organization and expression. EMBO J 5:2043–2049
Turmel M, Bellemare G, Lemieux C (1987) Physical mapping of differences between the chloroplast DNAs of the interfertile algae Chlamydomonas eugametos and Chlamydomonas moewusii. Curr Genet 11:543–552
Turmel M, Lemieux B, Lemieux C (1988) The chloroplast genome of the green alga Chlamydomonas moewusii: localization of protein-coding genes and transcriptionally active regions. Mol Gen Genet 214:412–419
Turmel M, Boulanger J, Lemieux C (1989 a) Two group I introns with long open reading frames in the chloroplast psbA gene of Chlamydomonas moewusii. Nucleic Acids Res 17:3875–3887
Turmel M, Boulanger J, Bergeron A (1989 b) Nucleotide sequence of the chloroplast petD gene of Chlamydomonas eugametos. Nucleic Acids Res 17:3593
Turmel M, Boulanger J, Schnare MN, Gray MW, Lemieux C (1991) Six group I introns and three internal transcribed spacers in the chloroplast large subunit ribosomal RNA gene of the green alga Chlamydomonas eugametos. J Mol Biol 218:293–311
Turmel M, Gutell RR, Mercier J-P, Otis C, Lemieux C (1993 a) Analysis of the chloroplast large subunit ribosomal RNA gene from 17 Chlamydomonas taxa: three internal transcribed spacers and 12 group I intron insertion sites. J Mol Biol 232:446–467
Turmel, M, Mercier, J-P, Côté, M-J (1993 b) Group I introns interrupt the chloroplast psaB and psbC and the mitochondrial rrnL gene in Chlamydomonas. Nucleic Acids Res 21:5242–5250
Yang RCA, Dove M, Seligy VL, Lemieux C, Turmel M, Narang SA (1986) Complete nucleotide sequence and mRNA-mapping of the large subunit gene of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) from Chlamydomonas moewusii. Gene 50:250–270
Zhou DX, Quigley F, Massenet O, Mache R (1989) Cotranscription of the S10- and spc-like operons in spinach chloroplasts and identification of three of their gene products. Mol Gen Genet 216:439–445
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Communicated by B. B. Sears