Diplonemids are highly abundant heterotrophic marine protists. Previous studies showed that their strikingly bloated mitochondrial genome is unique because of systematic gene fragmentation and manifold RNA editing. Here we report a comparative study of mitochondrial genome architecture, gene structure and RNA editing of six recently isolated, phylogenetically diverse diplonemid species. Mitochondrial gene fragmentation and modes of RNA editing, which include cytidine-to-uridine (C-to-U) and adenosine-to-inosine (A-to-I) substitutions and 3' uridine additions (U-appendage), are conserved across diplonemids. Yet as we show here, all these features have been pushed to their extremes in the Hemistasiidae lineage. For example, Namystynia karyoxenos has its genes fragmented into more than twice as many modules than other diplonemids, with modules as short as four nucleotides. Furthermore, we detected in this group multiple A-appendage and guanosine-to-adenosine (G-to-A) substitution editing events not observed before in diplonemids and found very rarely elsewhere. With >1,000 sites, C-to-U and A-to-I editing in Namystynia is nearly 10 times more frequent than in other diplonemids. The editing density of 12% in coding regions makes Namystynia's the most extensively edited transcriptome described so far. Diplonemid mitochondrial genome architecture, gene structure and post-transcriptional processes display such high complexity that they challenge all other currently known systems.

Department of Biochemistry and Robert Cedergren Centre for Bioinformatics and Genomics Université de Montréal H3T 1J4 Montreal Canada

Faculty of Science Charles University BIOCEV 25250 Vestec Czech Republic

Faculty of Sciences University of South Bohemia 37005 České Budějovice Czech Republic

Institute of Parasitology Biology Centre Czech Academy of Sciences 37005 České Budějovice Czech Republic

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