title: Interorganellar gene transfer in bryophytes: the functional nad7 gene is nuclear encoded in Marchantia polymorpha.
abstract: The nad7 gene, encoding subunit 7 of NADH dehydrogenase, is mitochondrially encoded in seed plants. In the liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha, only a pseudogene is located in the mitochondrial genome. We have now identified the functional nad7 gene copy in the nuclear genome of Marchantia, coding for a polypeptide of 468 amino acids. The nuclear-encoded nad7 has lost the two group II introns present in the mitochondrial pseudogene copy. Instead, a typical nuclear intron is found to split an exon encoding the presumptive mitochondrial targeting signal peptide and the mature subunit 7 of NADH dehydrogenase. These results suggest that RNA-mediated gene transfer from the mitochondrial into the nuclear genome occurs not only in seed plants but also in bryophytes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Knoop
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukuzawa
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Brennicke
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohyama
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002417:Cattle; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000235:genetics; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009245:NADH Dehydrogenase / Q000235:genetics*; D010944:Plants / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D009245:NADH Dehydrogenase