Synopsis
Supergroup Excavata comprises a variety of biflagellated aerobic and anaerobic protists whose defining characteristic is a central grooved cytostome (cell mouth). Of all the eukaryotic supergroups, excavates exhibit the widest variety of mitochondrial genome forms and gene content. One group, the jakobids, possesses the most ancestral (least derived) mitochondrial genome yet characterized: a circular-mapping DNA containing the largest known mitochondrial gene set and displaying bacterial operon-like gene arrangements and expression signals. At the other extreme, certain excavates have lost mtDNA entirely. One excavate phylum, Euglenozoa, contains three well-delineated lineages: kinetoplastids, diplonemids, and euglenids. Some kinetoplastids, including many parasitic genera such as Trypanosoma(the causative agent of African sleeping sickness), have a complex kinetoplast DNA that consists of interlocked mass of maxicircles and minicircles. Maxicircles correspond to the...
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Lukeš, J. (2014). Mitochondrial Genomes of Excavata. In: Bell, E. (eds) Molecular Life Sciences. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6436-5_118-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6436-5_118-2
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