scholarly journals High Mutation Rate of TPE Repeats: A Microsatellite in the Putative Transposase of the hobo Element in Drosophila melanogaster

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (11) ◽  
pp. 1826-1832 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Souames
DNA Research ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajime Honma ◽  
Makoto Hirai ◽  
Shota Nakamura ◽  
Hassan Hakimi ◽  
Shin-ichiro Kawazu ◽  
...  

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikhail I. Schelkunov ◽  
Maxim S. Nuraliev ◽  
Maria D. Logacheva

Although most plant species are photosynthetic, several hundred species have lost the ability to photosynthesize and instead obtain nutrients via various types of heterotrophic feeding. Their plastid genomes markedly differ from the plastid genomes of photosynthetic plants. In this work, we describe the sequenced plastid genome of the heterotrophic plant Rhopalocnemis phalloides, which belongs to the family Balanophoraceae and feeds by parasitizing other plants. The genome is highly reduced (18,622 base pairs vs. approximately 150 kbp in autotrophic plants) and possesses an extraordinarily high AT content, 86.8%, which is inferior only to AT contents of plastid genomes of Balanophora, a genus from the same family. The gene content of this genome is quite typical of heterotrophic plants, with all of the genes related to photosynthesis having been lost. The remaining genes are notably distorted by a high mutation rate and the aforementioned AT content. The high AT content has led to sequence convergence between some of the remaining genes and their homologs from AT-rich plastid genomes of protists. Overall, the plastid genome of R. phalloides is one of the most unusual plastid genomes known.


Author(s):  
Dorothy H. Crawford

‘What are viruses?’ introduces viruses and their structure. Martinus Beijerinck, in 1898, was the first to coin the term ‘virus’, and invention of the electron microscope in the late 1930s greatly enhanced virus identification. Viruses are not cells, but obligate parasites that must infect a cell and use its organelles in order to reproduce. They carry either DNA or RNA, and have a protein coat called a capsid. The whole structure is called a virion. Viruses have a high mutation rate, which helps them to survive and boost their resistance to antiviral drugs. The molecular clock technique to track a virus’s history is also explained.


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