Informational complexity of the nuclear and chloroplast genomes of Chlamydomonas reinhardi

Abstract

DNA - DNA reassociation kinetics analyzed by hydroxylapatite chromatography have been used to determine the informational content of the Chlamydomonas reinhardi nuclear and chloroplast genomes. The kinetics indicate that nuclear DNA, with the exception of ribosomal cistrons, renatures as a single component with an informational complexity 25 times that of the Escherichia coli genome. The chloroplast genome has less than 0.3% of the informational complexity of the nuclear genome, but is present in about 50 copies in the vegetative cell. Chloroplast DNA shows about a 10-12% zero-time binding component.