A common red algal origin of the apicomplexan, dinoflagellate, and heterokont plastids.

ABSTRACT: The discovery of a nonphotosynthetic plastid in malaria and other apicomplexan parasites has sparked a contentious debate about its evolutionary origin. Molecular data have led to conflicting conclusions supporting either its green algal origin or red algal origin, perhaps in common with the plastid of related dinoflagellates. This distinction is critical to our understanding of apicomplexan evolution and the evolutionary history of endosymbiosis and photosynthesis; however, the two plastids are nearly impossible to compare due to their nonoverlapping information content. Here we describe the complete plastid genome sequences and plastid-associated data from two independent photosynthetic lineages represented by Chromera velia and an undescribed alga CCMP3155 that we show are closely relat

SUBMITTER: Janouskovec J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2890776 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature