The mitochondrial genome of the lycophyte Huperzia squarrosa: the most archaic form in vascular plants

Mitochondrial genomes have maintained some bacterial features despite their residence within eukaryotic cells for approximately two billion years. One of these features is the frequent presence of polycistronic operons. In land plants, however, it has been shown that all sequenced vascular plant cho...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2012-04, Vol.7 (4), p.e35168-e35168
Main Authors: Liu, Yang, Wang, Bin, Cui, Peng, Li, Libo, Xue, Jia-Yu, Yu, Jun, Qiu, Yin-Long
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Automation
Base pairs
Biology
Bryophytes
Chloroplast DNA
Chloroplasts
Chromosome Mapping
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Evolution
Evolutionary biology
Flowers & plants
Gene Order
Genes
Genes, Mitochondrial
Genome, Plant
Genomes
Genomics
Huperzia - genetics
Huperzia lucidula
Introns
Laboratories
Low level
Lycopodiaceae
Medical screening
Mitochondria
Mitochondrial DNA
Operons
Plant genetics
Plants
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
RNA editing
rRNA
Science
Seeds
Selaginella
Transfer RNA
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Summary:Mitochondrial genomes have maintained some bacterial features despite their residence within eukaryotic cells for approximately two billion years. One of these features is the frequent presence of polycistronic operons. In land plants, however, it has been shown that all sequenced vascular plant chondromes lack large polycistronic operons while bryophyte chondromes have many of them. In this study, we provide the completely sequenced mitochondrial genome of a lycophyte, from Huperzia squarrosa, which is a member of the sister group to all other vascular plants. The genome, at a size of 413,530 base pairs, contains 66 genes and 32 group II introns. In addition, it has 69 pseudogene fragments for 24 of the 40 protein- and rRNA-coding genes. It represents the most archaic form of mitochondrial genomes of all vascular plants. In particular, it has one large conserved gene cluster containing up to 10 ribosomal protein genes, which likely represents a polycistronic operon but has been disrupted and greatly reduced in the chondromes of other vascular plants. It also has the least rearranged gene order in comparison to the chondromes of other vascular plants. The genome is ancestral in vascular plants in several other aspects: the gene content resembling those of charophytes and most bryophytes, all introns being cis-spliced, a low level of RNA editing, and lack of foreign DNA of chloroplast or nuclear origin.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0035168