Nucleotide sequence of Marchantia polymorpha chloroplast DNA: a region possibly encoding three tRNAs and three proteins including a homologue of E. coli ribosomal protein S14.

The nucleotide sequence of a region of Marchantia polymorpha chloroplast DNA was determined. On this DNA sequence (3.38kb), three open reading frames (ORFs) and three putative tRNA genes were detected in the following order: -ORF701-tRNASer(UGA)-ORF702-tRNAGly(GCC)-initiator tRNAMet(CAU)-ORF703-. The ORF703 is composed of 100 codons in which those for lysine (15%) and arginine (11%) are abundant, and could be accounted for as a counterpart of E. coli ribosomal protein S14 since they share 45% homology in the amino acid sequences. The ORF701 appears to code for a membrane protein, showing a periodic appearance of seven clusters of hydrophobic amino acids. Although the mechanisms remain unknown, the ORF701 causes a streptomycin-sensitive phenotype in resistant mutants of E. coli. The ORFs and tRNA genes are separated from each other by extremely AT-rich spacers containing sequences of dyad symmetry. The third letter positions of the codons in the ORFs are also rich in A and T residues.