The mitochondrial genome of Pocillopora (Cnidaria: Scleractinia) contains two variable regions: the putative D-loop and a novel ORF of unknown function.
The complete mitochondrial genomes of two individuals attributed to different morphospecies of the scleractinian coral genus Pocillopora have been sequenced. Both genomes, respectively 17,415 and 17,422 nt long, share the presence of a previously undescribed ORF encoding a putative protein made up of 302 amino acids and of unknown function. Surprisingly, this ORF turns out to be the second most variable region of the mitochondrial genome (1% nucleotide sequence difference between the two individuals) after the putative control region (1.5% sequence difference). Except for the presence of this ORF and for the location of the putative control region, the mitochondrial genome of Pocillopora is organized in a fashion similar to the other scleractinian coral genomes published to date. For the first time in a cnidarian, a putative second origin of replication is described based on its secondary structure similar to the stem-loop structure of O(L), the origin of L-strand replication in vertebrates.
Flot
Jean-François
JF
UMR UPMC-CNRS-MNHN-IRD 7138, Département Systématique et Evolution, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Case Postale 26, 57 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France. jfflot@mnhn.fr
Tillier
Simon
S
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D000818:Animals; D020029:Base Pairing; D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D003063:Cnidaria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D016678:Genome; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D012343:RNA, Transfer