Gene Order

Correlated gene arrangements among taxa provide a valuable framework for inference of shared ancestry of genes and for the utilization of findings from model organisms to study less-well-understood systems. In angiosperms, comparisons of gene arrangements are complicated by recurring polyploidy and extensive genome rearrangement. New genome sequences and improved analytical approaches are clarifying angiosperm evolution and revealing patterns of differential

The 16,775 base-pair mitochondrial genome of the white Leghorn chicken has been cloned and sequenced. The avian genome encodes the same set of genes (13 proteins, 2 rRNAs and 22 tRNAs) as do other vertebrate mitochondrial DNAs and is organized in a very similar economical fashion. There are very few intergenic nucleotides and several instances of overlaps between protein or tRNA genes. The protein genes are highly similar to their mammalian and amphibian counterparts and are translated according to the same variant genetic code. Despite these highly conserved features, the chicken mitochondrial genome displays two distinctive characteristics. First, it exhibits a novel gene order, the contiguous tRNAGlu and ND6 genes are located immediately adjacent to the displacement loop region of the molecule, just ahead of the contiguous tRNAPro, tRNAThr and cytochrome b genes, which border the displacement loop region in other vertebrate mitochondrial genomes. This unusual gene order is conserved among the galliform birds. Second, a light-strand replication origin, equivalent to the conserved sequence found between the tRNACys and tRNAAsn genes in all vertebrate mitochondrial genomes sequenced thus far, is absent in the chicken genome. These observations indicate that galliform mitochondrial genomes departed from their mammalian and amphibian counterparts during the course of evolution of vertebrate species. These unexpected characteristics represent useful markers for investigating phylogenetic relationships at a higher taxonomic level.

A phylogenetic hypothesis for the lepidopteran superfamily Noctuoidea was inferred based on the complete mitochondrial (mt) genomes of 12 species (six newly sequenced). The monophyly of each noctuoid family in the latest classification was well supported. Novel and robust relationships were recovered at the family level, in contrast to previous analyses using nuclear genes. Erebidae was recovered as sister to (Nolidae+(Euteliidae+Noctuidae)), while Notodontidae was sister to all these taxa (the putatively basalmost lineage Oenosandridae was not included). In order to improve phylogenetic resolution using mt genomes, various analytical approaches were tested: Bayesian inference (BI) vs. maximum likelihood (ML), excluding vs. including RNA genes (rRNA or tRNA), and Gblocks treatment. The evolutionary signal within mt genomes had low sensitivity to analytical changes. Inference methods had the most significant influence. Inclusion of tRNAs positively increased the congruence of topolog...

The nucleotide sequence of the DNA genome of Cydia pomonella granulovirus (CpGV) was determined and analysed. The genome is composed of 123500 bp and has a G+C content of 45.2%. It contains 143 ORFs of 150 nucleotides or more that show minimal overlap. One-hundred-and-eighteen (82.5%) of these putative genes are homologous to genes previously identified in other baculoviruses. Among them, 73 are homologous to genes of Autographa californica nucleopolyhedrovirus (AcMNPV), whereas 108 and 98 are homologous to genes of Xestia c-nigrum GV (XcGV) and Plutella xylostella GV (PxGV), respectively. These homologues show on average 37.4% overall amino acid sequence identity to those from AcMNPV and 45% to those from XcGV and PxGV. The CpGV gene content was compared to that of other baculoviruses. Several genes reported to have major roles in baculovirus biology were not found in the CpGV genome, such as gp64, the major budded virus glycoprotein gene in some nucleopolyhedroviruses, and lef-7, ...

Commercial exploitation of heterosis is essential for enhancing productivity of rice. The use of cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and fertility restoration system greatly facilitates large scale production of hybrid seed. The wild abortive (WA) cytoplasm is most widely used for hybrid seed production in rice. The present study was undertaken to develop molecular markers for both WA cytoplasm based male sterility and its fertility restoration for use in efficient hybrid breeding. High degree of genetic differentiation of WA-cytoplasm from its normal fertile counterpart was observed due to DNA rearrangements involving five (coxI, coxIII, cob, atp6 and rps3) mitochondrial genes. Cleaved amplified polymorphic sequence (CAPS) markers based on five mitochondrial genes namely, coxIII, cob, atp9, rps3 and 18SrRNA polymorphic between CMS and maintainer line were developed. The utility of these informative markers was demonstrated in purity testing of the CMS line Pusa6A being used in commercial hybrid seed production. Fertility restoration was found to be controlled by a major locus in the Basmati restorer line PRR78, which was mapped to a short marker interval of 0.8 cM and a physical interval of 163.6 kb on rice chromosome 10. A total of 13 pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) motif containing genes were predicted in a 1.66 Mb region on the long-arm of this chromosome of which, four were present in the marker interval containing the fertility restorer gene. High degree of conservation of gene order was observed between japonica and indica for the predicted PPR genes. A sequence tagged site (STS) and a genic non-coding microsatellite (GNMS) marker were designed based on one of the candidate PPR motif containing genes present in the marker interval, which were validated using F2 population and other known restorer lines. The candidate gene based marker identified in the present study would be useful in marker assisted selection (MAS) for fertility restorer gene in hybrid breeding programme based on WA-CMS of rice.

A cellulase producing strain of Actinomycetes was isolated from soil samples which were collected from Southwest ghats, Kerala, India at a depth of 6–12 inches and Actinomycetes was characterized by morphological, cultural, physiological, chemotaxonomical and phylogenetic analysis. The 16S rRNA region of this strain was amplified and sequenced. The Neighbor-joining and Maximum Parsimony algorithm with topology tree of 16S rRNA was constructed. Based on results of observation and phylogenetic analysis, the strain SPKC1 was proved to belong to the species Streptomyces noboritoensis with cellulase activity. The Carboxy Methyl Cellulose (CMCase) activities of the strain SPKC1 on eighth day an amount of 910 µg/ml of glucose, 210 µg/ml of protein and 850 mg/100 ml of growth (biomass) on ninth day were recorded. In exocellulase activity strain SPKC1 on first day an amount of 500 µg/ml glucose was produced.

Nitrite-oxidizing bacteria of the genus Nitrospira are ubiquitous in natural ecosystems and also in wastewater treatment plants. Nitrospira are members of a distinct phylum, not closely related to other nitrifiers, and no genomic sequences from this genus have been available so far. Here we applied an environmental genomics approach to sequence and assemble a 137 kbp-long genome fragment of 'Candidatus Nitrospira defluvii', which had been enriched from activated sludge and belongs to Nitrospira sublineage I without isolated representatives. The annotation of this contig, which carried the 16S rRNA gene of N. defluvii, offered first insight into the genome of Nitrospira. Surprisingly, we found a gene similar to genes encoding chlorite dismutase (CLD), an enzyme degrading chlorite (ClO(2)(-)) to Cl(-) and O(2). To date, CLDs with high catalytic activity have been found only in perchlorate- and chlorate-reducing bacteria but not in nitrifiers. Heterologous expression in E. coli followed by enzymatic tests confirmed that this gene of Nitrospira encodes a highly active CLD, which is also expressed in situ by Nitrospira, indicating that this nitrite oxidizer might be involved in the bioremediation of perchlorate and chlorite. Phylogenetic analyses showed that CLD and related proteins are widely distributed among the Bacteria and Archaea, and indicated that this enzyme family appeared relatively early in evolution, has been subject to functional diversification and might play yet unknown roles in microbial metabolism.

The genome architecture and amino acid sequences of six new complete mitochondrial genomes were determined from representatives of Hemichordata (1), Ophiuroidea (3), Echinoidea (1) and Holothuroidea (1) and were analysed together with previously known sequences. Phylogenetic analyses recovered three lineages within echinoderms, Crinoidea, Ophiuroidea and a group comprising Holothuroidea, Echinoidea, and Asteroidea. In contrast to previous analyses of mitochondrial genomes the increased data set recovered the classical echinoderm phylogeny of Eleutherozoa and Echinozoa in Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian analyses using hemichordate out-group representatives. However, an inconsistent ramification appeared with vertebrate out-groups and in Maximum Parsimony and Neighbour Joining reconstructions.The basal (consensus) gene orders of all three lineages could be derived from a hypothetical ancestral crinoid gene order by one single rearrangement in each lineage. The genome architecture was highly conserved in Echinoidea, whereas the highest gene order differences and large amounts of unassigned sequences (UAS) were detected in Ophiuroidea, supporting a higher evolutionary rate than in any other echinoderm lineage. The variability in gene order and UAS regions in ophiuroid genomes suggest dominating rearrangement mechanisms by duplication events.

A consensus linkage map of the barley genome was constructed. The map is based on six doubled haploid and one F2 population. The mapping data for three of the doubled haploid populations was obtained via the GrainGenes database. To allow merger of the maps, only RFLP markers that produce a single scorable band were included. Although this reduced the available markers by about half, the resultant map contains a total of 587 markers including 87 of known function. As expected, gene order was highly conserved between maps and all but two discrepancies were found in closely linked markers and are likely to result from the small population sizes used for some maps. The consensus map allows the rapid localisation of markers between published maps and should facilitate the selection of markers for high-density mapping in defined regions.