A survey of fully-sequenced chloroplast genomes revealed that in land plants there are six tRNA genes that have introns. Moreover, the length of a particular tRNA gene intron remains relatively stable across species. However, in algae, the presence of chloroplast tRNA genes containing introns is exceptional. A survey of mitochondrial plant genomes revealed intron-containing tRNA genes are rather rare features, with the exception of tRNASerGCU genes in liverworts and peat-mosses. We isolated and sequenced one mitochondrial and three chloroplast intron-containing tRNA genes and a fragment of the mitochondrial coxIII gene containing the first intron from the following liverwort species: Pellia borealis, Pellia epiphylla-species N, Pellia epiphylla-species S and Porella baueri, Porella cordaeana, Porella platyphylla. We showed that, as in the case of higher plants, the rate of nucleotide substitution is lower in the mitochondrial genome than in the chloroplast genome. Moreover, the comparison of intron nucleotide sequences enabled us to show that in the case of one allopolyploid species, Pellia borealis, organelles were transmitted from one parent species, Pellia epiphylla-species N. In the case of another allopolyploid species, Porella baueri, organelles were also inherited from one parent species, Porella cordaeana. Therefore, organellar inheritance in liverworts seems to be uniparental. It remains clear that analysis of carefully chosen chloroplast and mitochondrial DNA sequences allowed us to reconstruct historical events.
All higher plant plastid genomes have six classes of tRNA genes containing introns. One of those is the tRNALys UUU gene, which encodes maturase protein. In the case of liverwort species from the genus Porella and mosses from the genus Plagiomnium, the maturase coding gene (matK) represents a truncated form of other plant matK genes: several subdomains of the reverse transcriptase-like domain and so-called domain X are not present in these ORFs. These ORFs probably represent pseudogenes of the matK gene. The analysis of codon usage within the matK gene revealed the presence of strong A/T pressure. The use of codons with the third letter being U or A varies from 71-93%. The comparison of maturase amino acid sequences at the family level shows a high identity between species. However, when liverwort and angiosperm maturase sequences are compared, the percentage of identity drops dramatically. The calculated values of the number of nucleotide substitutions vary considerably, even when liverwort species are compared pairwise. The phenetic tree of relationships between plant species on the basis of tRNALys UUU intron sequences concur with the generally accepted plant phylogeny.
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