Good things in small packages: The tiny genomes of chlorarachniophyte endosymbionts

Abstract

Chlorarachniophytes are amoeboflagellate, marine protists that have acquired photosynthetic capacity by engulfing and retaining a green alga. These green algal endosymbionts are severely reduced, retaining only the chloroplast, nucleus, cytoplasm and plasma membrane. The vestigial nucleus of the endosymbiont, called the nucleomorph, contains only three small linear chromosomes and has a haploid genome size of just 380 kb - the smallest eukaryotic genome known. Initial characterisation of nucleomorph DNA has revealed that all chromosomes are capped with inverted repeats comprising a telomere and a single ribosomal RNA operon. The nucleomorph genome is the quintessence of compactness; average ..