Nash Edmund A, Nisbet R Ellen R, Barbrook Adrian C, Howe Christopher J
Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Trends Genet. 2008 Jul;24(7):328-35. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2008.04.001. Epub 2008 May 29.
Dinoflagellate algae are notorious for their highly unusual organization of nuclear and chloroplast genomes. Early studies on the dinoflagellate mitochondrial genome indicated that it encodes the same three protein-coding genes found in Plasmodium spp., but with a complex organization and transcript editing. Recent work has extended this view, showing that the dinoflagellate mitochondrial genome contains a wide array of gene fragments and genes interspersed with noncoding inverted repeats. The genome seems to require noncanonical start and stop codons, as well as high levels of editing, trans-splicing and the addition of oligonucleotide caps at the 5' and 3' ends of transcripts. Despite its small coding content, the dinoflagellate mitochondrial genome is one of the most complex known.
甲藻因其细胞核和叶绿体基因组极为独特的组织方式而声名远扬。早期对甲藻线粒体基因组的研究表明，它编码与疟原虫属中相同的三个蛋白质编码基因，但具有复杂的组织方式和转录本编辑。最近的研究扩展了这一观点，表明甲藻线粒体基因组包含大量基因片段和基因，这些基因片段和基因穿插着非编码反向重复序列。该基因组似乎需要非标准的起始和终止密码子，以及高水平的编辑、反式剪接和在转录本的5'和3'末端添加寡核苷酸帽。尽管其编码内容较少，但甲藻线粒体基因组却是已知最复杂的基因组之一。
