Normal Chlamydomonas nuclear gene structure on linkage group XIX.

The unusual Chlamydomonas linkage group XIX-called the uni linkage group for the uni mutants that lack one of the paired flagellae of wild-type cells--has been reported to be physically located exclusively at the basal bodies. To learn whether the structure of genes on this linkage group differs from the structure of nuclear genes in this organism, we determined the primary structure of a gene that maps to linkage group XIX. This analysis reveals the presence of nine intervening sequences; the nucleotides at exon/intron boundaries conform with nuclear gene intron junction sequences. Also typical for C. reinhardtii nuclear genes are the position and sequence of the putative polyadenylation signal. These findings suggest that transcripts from linkage group XIX are likely to be processed in the nucleus. The open reading frame, which displays weak but easily detected Chlamydomonas codon bias, potentially encodes a protein similar to a membrane anchor for cytoskeletal proteins. The observation that expression of this gene is regulated during interphase and in gametes is not consistent with the hypothesis that linkage group XIX may be expressed only during mitotic and meiotic processes.