Disproportionate presence of adenosine in mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Ribonucleoside monophosphates (rNMPs) represent the most common nonstandard nucleotides found in the genome of cells. The distribution of rNMPs in DNA has been studied only in limited genomes. Using the ribose-seq protocol and the Ribose-Map bioinformatics toolkit, we reveal the distribution of rNMPs incorporated into the whole genome of a photosynthetic unicellular green alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. We discovered a disproportionate incorporation of adenosine in the mitochondrial and chloroplast DNA, in contrast to the nuclear DNA, relative to the corresponding nucleotide content of these C. reinhardtii organelle genomes. Our results demonstrate that the rNMP content in the DNA of the algal organelles reflects an elevated ATP level present in the algal cells. We reveal specific biases and patterns in rNMP distributions in the algal mitochondrial, chloroplast, and nuclear DNA. Moreover, we identified the C. reinhardtii orthologous genes for all three subunits of the RNase H2 enzyme using GeneMark-EP + gene finder.

Automated summary

The distribution of rNMPs in different organelle genomes of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii reveals specific biases and patterns, reflecting the varying ATP levels present in the algal cells. Researchers identified the orthologous genes for all three subunits of the RNase H2 enzyme in the algal organelles using different tools and protocols.