ANALYSIS OF HETEROSIGMA CARTERAE¹ (CHROMOPHYTA, RAPHIDOPHYCEAE) CHLOROPLAST rpoB GENE SEQUENCE²

Abstract

The rpoB gene encoding the β‐subunit of RNA Polymerase has been isolated from the chloroplast genome of the chromophytic alga Heterosigma carterae (Taylor 1992). The nucleotide sequence contains an open reading frame of 3348 bp, which encodes 1116 amino acids. The H. carterae rpoB gene structure is similar to that of chlorophytic chloroplast rpoB genes with respect to insertion‐deletion domains. However, several conserved residues found in all chlorophytic plants and bacterial rpoB genes have not been found in this alga. This is the first nonchlorophytic chloroplast rpoB gene to be analyzed, and our data provide insight concerning regions, and perhaps particular residues, that may be essential to chloroplast RNA polymerase function.