MI69CH07-Lukes ARI 5 June 2015 13:47 V I E E W R S I E N C N A D V A The Organellar Genomes of Chromera and Vitrella,the Phototrophic Relatives of Apicomplexan Parasites Miroslav Obornık´ 1,2,3 and Julius Lukesˇ1,2,4 1Institute of Parasitology, Biology Center, Czech Academy of Sciences, 1160/31 Ceskˇ e´ Budejovice,ˇ Czech Republic; email:
[email protected],
[email protected] 2Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, 37005 Ceskˇ e´ Budejovice,ˇ Czech Republic 3Institute of Microbiology, Czech Academy of Sciences, 379 81 Treboˇ n,ˇ Czech Republic 4Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1Z8, Canada Annu. Rev. Microbiol. 2015. 69:129–44 Keywords The Annual Review of Microbiology is online at organellar genomes, mitochondrion, plastid, Apicomplexa, Alveolata, micro.annualreviews.org Chromera This article’s doi: 10.1146/annurev-micro-091014-104449 Abstract Copyright c 2015 by Annual Reviews. Apicomplexa are known to contain greatly reduced organellar genomes. All rights reserved Their mitochondrial genome carries only three protein-coding genes, and their plastid genome is reduced to a 35-kb-long circle. The discovery of coral- endosymbiotic algae Chromera velia and Vitrella brassicaformis, which share a common ancestry with Apicomplexa, provided an opportunity to study possibly ancestral forms of organellar genomes, a unique glimpse into the evolutionary history of apicomplexan parasites. The structurally similar mi- tochondrial genomes of Chromera and Vitrella differ in gene content, which is reflected in the composition of their respiratory chains. Thus, Chromera lacks respiratory complexes I and III, whereas Vitrella and apicomplexan parasites are missing only complex I.