Project description:We report the complete organelle genome sequences of Trebouxiophyceae sp. strain MX-AZ01, an acidophilic green microalga isolated from a geothermal field in Mexico. This eukaryote has the remarkable ability to thrive in a particular shallow lake with emerging hot springs at the bottom, extremely low pH, and toxic heavy metal concentrations. Trebouxiophyceae sp. MX-AZ01 represents one of few described photosynthetic eukaryotes living in such a hostile environment. The organelle genomes of Trebouxiophyceae sp. MX-AZ01 are remarkable. The plastid genome sequence currently presents the highest G+C content for a trebouxiophyte. The mitochondrial genome sequence is the largest reported to date for the Trebouxiophyceae class of green algae. The analysis of the genome sequences presented here provides insight into the evolution of organelle genomes of trebouxiophytes and green algae.
Project description:A <i>Pediastrum duplex</i> (Chlorophyta) strain was isolated from a freshwater system in Milledgeville, Georgia and its chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes sequenced. The chloroplast genome was 199,241?bp with 136 genes and the mitochondrial 40,756?bp with 40 genes, both were circular. Comparison of the 'Milledgeville' plastome to other <i>P. duplex</i> isolates revealed a nearly identical sequence identity to archived genes and genomic fragments from the strain UTEX1364 which was isolated from Lake Machovo in 1962. These sequences provide chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes from a wild <i>P. duplex</i> isolate and provide more organelle genomes for a genus with cryptic phylogenetic relationships.
Project description:The aim of this study was to develop and validate a high resolution melting (HRM) method for the rapid, accurate identification of the various harmful diatom Pseudo-nitzschia species in marine environments. Pseudo-nitzschia has a worldwide distribution and some species are toxic, producing the potent domoic acid toxin, which poses a threat to both human and animal health. Hence, it is important to identify toxic Pseudo-nitzschia species. A pair of primers targeting the LSU rDNA of the genus Pseudo-nitzschia was designed for the development of the assay and its specificity was validated using 22 control DNAs of the P. calliantha, P. delicatissima/P. arenysensis complex and P. pungens. The post-PCR HRM assay was applied to numerous unidentified Pseudo-nitzschia strains isolated from the northwestern Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea), and it was able to detect and discriminate three distinct Pseudo-nitzschia taxa from unidentified samples. Moreover, the species-specific identification of Pseudo-nitzschia isolates by the HRM assay was consistent with phylogenetic analyses. The HRM assay was specific, robust and rapid when applied to high numbers of cultured samples in order to taxonomically identify Pseudo-nitzschia isolates recovered from environmental samples.
Project description:Pseudo-nitzschia-specific PCR primers (PnAll F/R) were designed to amplify a polymorphic region of the internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) from at least 11 Pseudo-nitzschia species. The primers were used to generate environmental clone libraries from Puget Sound, Washington, and Vancouver Island, British Columbia, to confirm that the primers were specific for Pseudo-nitzschia and to determine the extent of ITS1 sequence diversity within individual species. All environmental ITS1 sequences generated with PnAll primers displayed the greatest similarity to known Pseudo-nitzschia ITS1 sequences. The length of cloned ITS1 fragments differed among species but was conserved within a species. Intraspecific genotypes exhibited <3% sequence divergence for seven of the 10 species detected in clone libraries. Several ITS1 genotypes unique to the Pacific Northwest were identified in environmental samples, and other genotypes were more broadly distributed. The Pseudo-nitzschia primers were also used to develop an automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis (ARISA) to rapidly identify Pseudo-nitzschia species in environmental samples based on species-specific variation in the length of the targeted ITS1 region. The ARISA peaks were then associated with the environmental clone sequences for Pseudo-nitzschia species. Surveying the genetic composition of communities at both the inter- and intraspecific levels will enhance our understanding of Pseudo-nitzschia bloom dynamics.
Project description:Organelle genomes are among the most sequenced kinds of chromosome. This is largely because they are small and widely used in molecular studies, but also because next-generation sequencing technologies made sequencing easier, faster, and cheaper. However, studies of organelle RNA have not kept pace with those of DNA, despite huge amounts of freely available eukaryotic RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) data. Little is known about organelle transcription in nonmodel species, and most of the available eukaryotic RNA-seq data have not been mined for organelle transcripts. Here, we use publicly available RNA-seq experiments to investigate organelle transcription in 30 diverse plastid-bearing protists with varying organelle genomic architectures. Mapping RNA-seq data to organelle genomes revealed pervasive, genome-wide transcription, regardless of the taxonomic grouping, gene organization, or noncoding content. For every species analyzed, transcripts covered ?85% of the mitochondrial and/or plastid genomes (all of which were ?105 kb), indicating that most of the organelle DNA-coding and noncoding-is transcriptionally active. These results follow earlier studies of model species showing that organellar transcription is coupled and ubiquitous across the genome, requiring significant downstream processing of polycistronic transcripts. Our findings suggest that noncoding organelle DNA can be transcriptionally active, raising questions about the underlying function of these transcripts and underscoring the utility of publicly available RNA-seq data for recovering complete genome sequences. If pervasive transcription is also found in bigger organelle genomes (>105 kb) and across a broader range of eukaryotes, this could indicate that noncoding organelle RNAs are regulating fundamental processes within eukaryotic cells.
Project description:Organelle genomes evolve rapidly as compared with nuclear genomes and have been widely used for developing microsatellites or simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers for delineating phylogenomics. In our previous reports, we have established the largest repository of organelle SSRs, ChloroMitoSSRDB, which provides access to 2161 organelle genomes (1982 mitochondrial and 179 chloroplast genomes) with a total of 5838 perfect chloroplast SSRs, 37?297 imperfect chloroplast SSRs, 5898 perfect mitochondrial SSRs and 50?355 imperfect mitochondrial SSRs across organelle genomes. In the present research, we have updated ChloroMitoSSRDB by systematically analyzing and adding additional 191 chloroplast and 2102 mitochondrial genomes. With the recent update, ChloroMitoSSRDB 2.00 provides access to a total of 4454 organelle genomes displaying a total of 40?653 IMEx Perfect SSRs (11?802 Chloroplast Perfect SSRs and 28?851 Mitochondria Perfect SSRs), 275?981 IMEx Imperfect SSRs (78?972 Chloroplast Imperfect SSRs and 197?009 Mitochondria Imperfect SSRs), 35?250 MISA (MIcroSAtellite identification tool) Perfect SSRs and 3211 MISA Compound SSRs and associated information such as location of the repeats (coding and non-coding), size of repeat, motif and length polymorphism, and primer pairs. Additionally, we have integrated and made available several in silico SSRs mining tools through a unified web-portal for in silico repeat mining for assembled organelle genomes and from next generation sequencing reads. ChloroMitoSSRDB 2.00 allows the end user to perform multiple SSRs searches and easy browsing through the SSRs using two repeat algorithms and provide primer pair information for identified SSRs for evolutionary genomics.Database URL: http://www.mcr.org.in/chloromitossrdb.
Project description:Algae are the oldest taxa on Earth, with an evolutionary relationship that spans prokaryotes (Cyanobacteria) and eukaryotes. A long evolutionary history has led to high algal diversity. Their organelle DNAs are characterized by uniparental inheritance and a compact genome structure compared with nuclear genomes; thus, they are efficient molecular tools for the analysis of gene structure, genome structure, organelle function and evolution. However, an integrated organelle genome database for algae, which could enable users to both examine and use relevant data, has not previously been developed. Therefore, to provide an organelle genome platform for algae, we have developed a user-friendly database named Organelle Genome Database for Algae (OGDA, http://ogda.ytu.edu.cn/). OGDA contains organelle genome data either retrieved from several public databases or sequenced in our laboratory (Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding of Marine Organism [MOGBL]), which are continuously updated. The first release of OGDA contains 1055 plastid genomes and 755 mitochondrial genomes. Additionally, a variety of applications have been integrated into this platform to analyze the structural characteristics, collinearity and phylogeny of organellar genomes for algae. This database represents a useful tool for users, enabling the rapid retrieval and analysis of information related to organellar genomes for biological discovery.
Project description:The development of long-read sequencing technologies, such as single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing by PacBio, has produced a revolution in the sequencing of small genomes. Sequencing organelle genomes using PacBio long-read data is a cost effective, straightforward approach. Nevertheless, the availability of simple-to-use software to perform the assembly from raw reads is limited at present.We present Organelle-PBA, a Perl program designed specifically for the assembly of chloroplast and mitochondrial genomes. For chloroplast genomes, the program selects the chloroplast reads from a whole genome sequencing pool, maps the reads to a reference sequence from a closely related species, and then performs read correction and de novo assembly using Sprai. Organelle-PBA completes the assembly process with the additional step of scaffolding by SSPACE-LongRead. The program then detects the chloroplast inverted repeats and reassembles and re-orients the assembly based on the organelle origin of the reference. We have evaluated the performance of the software using PacBio reads from different species, read coverage, and reference genomes. Finally, we present the assembly of two novel chloroplast genomes from the species Picea glauca (Pinaceae) and Sinningia speciosa (Gesneriaceae).Organelle-PBA is an easy-to-use Perl-based software pipeline that was written specifically to assemble mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes from whole genome PacBio reads. The program is available at https://github.com/aubombarely/Organelle_PBA .