A pair of invertedly repeated genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii encodes a zygote-specific protein whose expression is UV-sensitive

Curr Genet. 1999 Oct;36(4):232-40. doi: 10.1007/s002940050495.

Abstract

Uniparental inheritance of the chloroplast genome has been observed in a wide variety of green plants. In Chlamydomonas this phenomenon, which can be selectively inhibited by UV irradiation of mt(+) gametes, has been shown cytologically to be due to the preferential degradation of mt(-)-derived chloroplast nucleoids in young zygotes. The zygote-specific pair of zys1 genes, zys1A and zys1B, is expressed earliest among five genes isolated from a "10-min" zygote library. We report here that the ZYS1 protein, which is encoded by the invertedly duplicated zys1 gene, accumulates in zygotes and is localized in nuclei. In addition, when mt(+) gametes (but not mt(-) gametes) are UV-irradiated before mating, only very limited accumulation of ZYS1 protein can be detected in the resulting zygotes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algal Proteins*
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Base Sequence
  • Chlamydomonas reinhardtii / genetics*
  • Chlamydomonas reinhardtii / metabolism
  • Chlamydomonas reinhardtii / radiation effects
  • Chloroplasts / genetics
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Plant Proteins / biosynthesis
  • Plant Proteins / genetics*
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Ultraviolet Rays*
  • Zygote / metabolism
  • Zygote / radiation effects

Substances

  • Algal Proteins
  • Plant Proteins