Size of the Chloroplast Genome in Codium fragile
MARY F. HEDBERG 1,
YUAN-SHEN HUANG 2, and
MAX H. HOMMERSAND 3
1 Botany Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27514
2 Cancer Research Center, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina
3 Botany Department, University of North Carolina
Chloroplasts isolated from the siphonous green alga Codium fragile yield circular DNA molecules averaging 27.3 micrometers in length and 56 x 106 daltons in molecular size. This chloroplast genome is 25 to 30 percent smaller than any reported. The small size of the Codium chloroplast genome may represent a primitive evolutionary condition in green plants.
Submitted on January 15, 1981
Revised on March 20, 1981