A three-step model for the rearrangement of the chloroplast trnK-psbA region of the gymnosperm Pinus contorta

Abstract

A region of the Pinus contorta chloroplast genome which contains a duplication of the psbA gene was characterized. From previous experiments it was known that the two copies of the psbA gene were located approximately 3.3 kilobase pairs (kbp) apart, that they had the same orientation and that one endpoint of the duplication was 19 base pairs (bp) downstream of the psbA stop codon. In order to determine the size and additional genetic content of the duplicated segment, both copies as well as the intervening DNA were sequenced completely. It was found that the duplicated segment was 1969 bp long, that the two copies were completely identical and were separated by 2431 bp. The duplicated segment carried, in addition to psbA, the 3' exon of the trnK gene, which was partially included in a 124 bp direct repeat. The translocated copy of the duplicated segment was found to be inserted upstream of the trnK(UUU) gene and was immediately followed by a repeated 41 bp stretch from the psbA coding region. The trnK gene was split by a 2509 bp intron which contained an open reading frame of 515 codons. Sequence comparisons of the duplicated segment and its flanking DNA to the corresponding regions of P. sylvestris, a species which lacks the rearrangements found in P. contorta, made it possible to identify 3-9 bp homologies within which recombinations had occurred. A model was derived which would accommodate the conversion of a trnK-psbA locus of the ancestral P. sylvestris-like organization into the rearranged structure found in P. contorta.