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The Complete Mitochondrial Genome Sequence of the Hornwort Megaceros aenigmaticus Shows a Mixed Mode of Conservative Yet Dynamic Evolution in Early Land Plant Mitochondrial Genomes

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Abstract

Land plants possess some of the most unusual mitochondrial genomes among eukaryotes. However, in early land plants these genomes resemble those of green and red algae or early eukaryotes. The question of when during land plant evolution the dramatic change in mtDNAs occurred remains unanswered. Here we report the first completely sequenced mitochondrial genome of the hornwort, Megaceros aenigmaticus, a member of the sister group of vascular plants. It is a circular molecule of 184,908 base pairs, with 32 protein genes, 3 rRNA genes, 17 tRNA genes, and 30 group II introns. The genome contains many genes arranged in the same order as in those of a liverwort, a moss, several green and red algae, and Reclinomonas americana, an early-branching eukaryote with the most ancestral form of mtDNA. In particular, the gene order between mtDNAs of the hornwort and Physcomitrella patens (moss) differs by only 8 inversions and translocations. However, the hornwort mtDNA possesses 4 derived features relative to green alga mtDNAs—increased genome size, RNA editing, intron gains, and gene losses—which were all likely acquired during the origin and early evolution of land plants. Overall, this genome and those of other 2 bryophytes show that mitochondrial genomes in early land plants, unlike their seed plant counterparts, exhibit a mixed mode of conservative yet dynamic evolution.

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Acknowledgments

We thank David K. Smith and Ken D. McFarland for helping obtaining the plant material; Jeffrey D. Palmer for making useful suggestions; and Jiayu Xue for assisting with data analyses. This work was supported by a National Science Foundation Early Career Award DEB 0332298 to Y.-L.Q. The M. aenigmaticus mitochondrial genome sequence reported in this study has been deposited in GenBank under accession number EU660574.

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, The University Herbarium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1048, USA

    Libo Li, Bin Wang, Yang Liu & Yin-Long Qiu

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  1. Libo Li
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Correspondence to Yin-Long Qiu.

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Libo Li and Bin Wang contributed equally to this work.

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Li, L., Wang, B., Liu, Y. et al. The Complete Mitochondrial Genome Sequence of the Hornwort Megaceros aenigmaticus Shows a Mixed Mode of Conservative Yet Dynamic Evolution in Early Land Plant Mitochondrial Genomes. J Mol Evol 68, 665–678 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-009-9240-7

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