A large open reading frame (orf1995) in the chloroplast DNA of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii encodes an essential protein

• Published in: Molecular & general genetics Vol. 253; no. 5; pp. 649 - 653
• Main Authors: Boudreau, E, Turmel, M, Goldschmidt-Clermont, M, Rochaix, J.D, Sivan, S, Michaels, A, Leu, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany 20.02.1997
• Subjects: ADN; Algal Proteins; Amino Acid Sequence; Animals; CHLAMYDOMONAS REINHARDTII; Chlamydomonas reinhardtii - genetics; Chlamydomonas reinhardtii - growth & development; CHLOROPLAST GENOME; CHLOROPLASTE; CHLOROPLASTS; Chloroplasts - genetics; CLOROPLASTO; CYTOPLASMIC INHERITANCE; DNA; GENE; GENE INACTIVATION; GENES; GREEN ALGAE; HEREDITE CYTOPLASMIQUE; HERENCIA CITOPLASMICA; Membrane Proteins - genetics; Membrane Proteins - physiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutagenesis, Insertional; Open Reading Frames; PROTEINAS; PROTEINE; PROTEINS; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; TRANSMEMBRANE PROTEIN
• ISSN: 0026-8925; 1432-1874
• DOI: 10.1007/s004380050368

An open reading frame potentially encoding a protein of 1995 amino acids (orf1995) has been found in the chloroplast genome of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Besides having a short hydrophobic N-terminal domain with five putative transmembrane helices, the predicted orf1995 product is highly basic. orf1995 might be a homologue of the ycf1 gene in land plants, whose function has not yet been determined. Mutants of C. reinhardtii transformed with a disruption of orf1995 remain heteroplasmic for the wild-type and disrupted alleles of this gene, indicating that the orf1995 product is essential for cell survival.