Title: Nucleotide diversity of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii plastid genome: addressing the mutational-hazard hypothesis. |
Journal: BMC evolutionary biology. 2009 May;9():120 |
Authors: Smith DR, Lee RW. |
Abstract: The mutational-hazard hypothesis argues that the noncoding-DNA content of a genome is a consequence of the mutation rate (mu) and the effective number of genes per locus in the population (N(g)). The hypothesis predicts that genomes with a high N(g)mu will be more compact than those with a small N(g)mu. Approximations of N(g)mu can be gained by measuring the nucleotide diversity at silent sites (pi(silent)). We addressed the mutation-hazard hypothesis apropos plastid-genome evolution by measuring pi(silent) of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii plastid DNA (ptDNA), the most noncoding-DNA-dense plastid genome observed to date. The data presented here in conjunction with previously published values of pi(silent) for the C. reinhardtii mitochondrial and nuclear genomes, which are respectively compact and bloated, allow for a complete analysis of nucleotide diversity and genome compactness in all three genetic compartments of this model organism. |
See full PubMed entry: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19473533 |