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Twenty‐Fold Difference in Evolutionary Rates between the Mitochondrial and Plastid Genomes of Species with Secondary Red Plastids
Author(s) -
Smith David Roy,
Keeling Patrick J.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of eukaryotic microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.067
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1550-7408
pISSN - 1066-5234
DOI - 10.1111/j.1550-7408.2011.00601.x
Subject(s) - plastid , biology , genome , mitochondrial dna , evolutionary biology , genetics , gene , mitochondrion , organelle , chloroplast
Within plastid‐bearing species, the relative rates of evolution between mitochondrial and plastid genomes are poorly studied, but for the few lineages in which they have been explored, including land plants and green algae, the mitochondrial DNA mutation rate is nearly always estimated to be lower than or equal to that of the plastid DNA . Here, we show that in protists from three distinct lineages with secondary, red algal‐derived plastids, the opposite is true: their mitochondrial genomes are evolving 5–30 times faster than their plastid genomes, even when the plastid is nonphotosynthetic. These findings have implications for understanding the origins and evolution of organelle genome architecture and the genes they encode.