Nucleotide sequence of the Physarum polycephalum small subunit ribosomal RNA as inferred from the gene sequence: secondary structure and evolutionary implications.

The nucleotide sequence of the Physarum polycephalum small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) gene has been determined. Sequence data indicate that the mature 19S SSU rRNA is 1,964 nucleotides long. A complete secondary structure model for P. polycephalum SSU rRNA has been constructed on the basis of the Escherichia coli 16S rRNA model and data from comparative analyses of 28 different eukaryotic sequences. A "four-helix" model is presented for the central domain variable region. This model can be applied both to vertebrate and most lower eukaryotic SSU rRNAs. The increased size of P. polycephalum SSU rRNA relative to the smaller SSU rRNAs from such other lower eukaryotes, as Dictyostelium, Tetrahymena or Saccharomyces is due mainly to three G+C-rich insertions found in two regions known to be of variable length in eukaryotes. In a phylogenetic tree constructed from pairwise comparisons of eukaryotic SSU rRNA sequences, the acellular myxomycete P. polycephalum is seen to diverge before the appearance of the cellular myxomycete Dictyostelium discoideum.