Journal
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Volume 30, Issue 4, Pages 793-797Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/molbev/mst002
Keywords
Chlamydomonas; Gonium; Pleodorina; Volvox; mitochondrion; chloroplast
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
- Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Trusts
- Medical Research Council (SA)
- National Health Laboratory Service (SA)
- NSERC [227301]
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0742383] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [11J05499, 24657045] Funding Source: KAKEN
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It has been argued that for certain lineages, noncoding DNA expansion is a consequence of the increased random genetic drift associated with long-term escalations in organism size. But a lack of data has prevented the investigation of this hypothesis in most plastid-bearing protists. Here, using newly sequenced mitochondrial and plastid genomes, we explore the relationship between organelle DNA noncoding content and organism size within volvocine green algae. By looking at unicellular, colonial, and differentiated multicellular algae, we show that organelle DNA complexity scales positively with species size and cell number across the volvocine lineage. Moreover, silent-site genetic diversity data suggest that the volvocine species with the largest cell numbers and most bloated organelle genomes have the smallest effective population sizes. Together, these findings support the view that nonadaptive processes, like random genetic drift, promote the expansion of noncoding regions in organelle genomes.
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