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The smallest known eukaryotic genomes encode a protein gene: towards an understanding of nucleomorph functions
C J Hofmann1, S A Rensing, M M Häuber
1Institut für Biologie II/Zellbiologie, Freiburg, Germany.
Molecular & General Genetics : MGG
|June 3, 1994
Abstract:
Cryptomonads are unicellular algae with plastids surrounded by four membranes. Between the two pairs of membranes lies a periplastidal compartment that harbours a DNA-containing organelle, termed the nucleomorph. The nucleomorph is the vestigial nucleus of a phototrophic, eukaryotic endosymbiont. Subcloning of parts of one nucleomorph chromosome revealed a gene coding for an Hsp70 protein. We demonstrate the expression of this nucleomorph protein-coding gene and present a model for protein transport from the host to the endosymbiont compartment.