New Article out: The chloroplast genome of a Symbiodinium sp. clade C3 isolate
10/17/2013
News Details
This is a good one: In dinoflagellates the plastid genes are located on small plasmids, commonly referred to as 'minicircles'. In this article, we characterized the chloroplast genome from an environmental coral isolate, in this case containing a symbiont belonging to the Symbiodinium
sp. clade C3. The gene content of the genome is well conserved with
respect to previously characterised genomes. However, unlike previously
characterized dinoflagellate chloroplast genomes we did not identify any
'empty' minicircles. The sequences of this chloroplast genome shows a
high rate of evolution relative to other algal species. Particularly
notable was a surprisingly high level of sequence divergence within the
core polypeptides of photosystem I, the reasons for which are currently
unknown. This chloroplast genome also possesses distinctive codon usage
and GC content. These features suggest that chloroplast genomes in Symbiodinium are highly plastic.