Blastocrithidia nonstop mitochondrial genome and its expression are remarkably insulated from nuclear codon reassignment.

ABSTRACT: The canonical stop codons of the nuclear genome of the trypanosomatid Blastocrithidia nonstop are recoded. Here, we investigated the effect of this recoding on the mitochondrial genome and gene expression. Trypanosomatids possess a single mitochondrion and protein-coding transcripts of this genome require RNA editing in order to generate open reading frames of many transcripts encoded as 'cryptogenes'. Small RNAs that can number in the hundreds direct editing and produce a mitochondrial transcriptome of unusual complexity. We find B. nonstop to have a typical trypanosomatid mitochondrial genetic code, which presumably requires the mitochondrion to disable utilization of the two nucleus-encoded suppressor tRNAs, which appear to be imported into the organelle. Alterations of the protein fact

SUBMITTER: Afonin DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11040004 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature