title: Comparison of the maxicircle (mitochondrial) genomes of Leishmania tarentolae and Trypanosoma brucei at the level of nucleotide sequence.
abstract: The entire 16.7-kilobase (kb) transcribed region of the Leishmania tarentolae maxicircle was compared to the entire 15-kb transcribed region of the Trypanosoma brucei maxicircle at the nucleotide sequence level by dot matrix analysis and by alignments of individual genes. The L. tarentolae NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (ND1) gene was identified in a newly obtained 2.9-kb sequence. All but two regions which flank the cytochrome b gene are highly conserved in both species. One 3.1-kb region in L. tarentolae that contains the cytochrome oxidase subunit III (COIII) gene and several open reading frames corresponds to a 2-kb sequence in T. brucei with limited sequence homology that lacks the COIII gene. Another 0.6-kb region that comprises an unidentified open reading frame (open reading frame 12) in L. tarentolae is substituted by a nonhomologous 0.4-kb open reading frame in T. brucei. A short intergenic region between the ND1 gene and the maxicircle unidentified reading frame 1 gene shows limited sequence homology, and the regions between the ND4 and ND5 genes and between the COI and ND4 genes are not conserved. All of the intergenic regions share G + C richness and a similar pattern of G versus C strand bias. 1.8 kb of the L. tarentolae divergent region (DV) and around 3 kb of the T. brucei DV were also obtained. The T. brucei DV sequences were not homologous to the L. tarentolae DV sequence but were organized in a similar fashion with tandem repeats of varying complexity.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes / Q000378:metabolism; D004270:DNA, Circular / Q000032:analysis; D015246:Deoxyribonuclease EcoRI; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics; D007891:Leishmania / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009245:NADH Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics; D012984:Software; D014346:Trypanosoma brucei brucei / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004270:DNA, Circular; D009245:NADH Dehydrogenase; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes; D015246:Deoxyribonuclease EcoRI