Title
The Chlamydomonas genome reveals the evolution of key animal and plant functions
UMMS Affiliation
Department of Cell Biology; Program in Molecular Medicine
Date
10-13-2007
Document Type
Article
Subjects
Algal Proteins; Animals; Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; Chloroplasts; Computational Biology; DNA, Algal; *Evolution; Flagella; Genes; *Genome; Genomics; Membrane Transport Proteins; Molecular Sequence Data; Multigene Family; Photosynthesis; Phylogeny; Plants; Proteome; Sequence Analysis, DNA
Abstract
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a unicellular green alga whose lineage diverged from land plants over 1 billion years ago. It is a model system for studying chloroplast-based photosynthesis, as well as the structure, assembly, and function of eukaryotic flagella (cilia), which were inherited from the common ancestor of plants and animals, but lost in land plants. We sequenced the approximately 120-megabase nuclear genome of Chlamydomonas and performed comparative phylogenomic analyses, identifying genes encoding uncharacterized proteins that are likely associated with the function and biogenesis of chloroplasts or eukaryotic flagella. Analyses of the Chlamydomonas genome advance our understanding of the ancestral eukaryotic cell, reveal previously unknown genes associated with photosynthetic and flagellar functions, and establish links between ciliopathy and the composition and function of flagella.
Rights and Permissions
Citation: Science. 2007 Oct 12;318(5848):245-50. Link to article on publisher's site
Related Resources
PubMed ID
17932292
Journal Title
Science (New York, N.Y.)
Comments
See the article on publisher's site or in PubMed Central for the full list of authors.