Organization of the Mitochondrial Genome in the Dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae

We have characterized the mitochondrial genome of the dinoflagellate Amphidinium carterae. It contains just 3 identifiable protein-coding genes: cox1, cox3, and cob. No evidence for rRNA or tRNA genes was found. Expressed sequence tags (EST) sequences for the 3 genes suggest that RNA editing occurs in 2 cases removing an in-frame stop codon. Two of the transcripts (cob and cox1) lack a stop codon at the end of the gene. The genome contains a large amount of noncoding DNA including many fragmented copies of all the 3 genes and large numbers of inverted repeats. The genome, which contains about 70% AT, has undergone extensive recombination, possibly due to the inverted repeats. The highly reduced mitochondrial gene content supports the relationship of the dinoflagellates and apicomplexa as sister groups.