A NOVEL EUGLENA-GRACILIS CHLOROPLAST OPERON ENCODING 4 ATP SYNTHASE SUBUNITS AND 2 RIBOSOMAL-PROTEINS CONTAINS 17 INTRONS

The structure of a Euglena gracilis chloroplast operon encoding four subunits of the chloroplast ATP synthase complex and two ribosomal proteins has been determined. These six genes contain 17 introns. This operon is transcribed as a hexacistronic primary transcript which is subsequently processed to monocistronic mRNAs. The linear order of these genes, 5'rps2-atpI-atpH-atpF-atpA-rpsi8-3', encoding ribosomal protein S2, chloroplast ATP synthase subunits CF0IV, CF0III, CF0I, CF1alpha and ribosomal protein S18, respectively, is similar to the equivalent operons of prokaryotes, cyanelles and land-plant chloroplasts. This operon differs from those of these other organisms in the co-transcription of rps18 and in intron content.