Maxicircles of all kinetoplastid flagellates are functional analogs of mitochondrial genome of other eukaryotes. They consist of two distinct parts, called the coding region and the divergent region (DR). The DR is composed of highly repetitive sequences and, as such, remains the least explored segment of a trypanosomatid genome. It is extremely difficult to sequence and assemble, that is why very few full length maxicircle sequences were available until now. Using PacBio data, we assembled 17 complete maxicircles from different species of trypanosomatids. Here we present their large-scale comparative analysis and describe common patterns of DR organization in trypanosomatids.

Faculty of Biology M 5 Lomonosov Moscow State University Moscow 119991 Russia

Institute for Information Transmission Problems Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow 127051 Russia

Life Science Research Centre Faculty of Science University of Ostrava 710 00 Ostrava Czech Republic

Martsinovsky Institute of Medical Parasitology Tropical and Vector Borne Diseases Sechenov University Moscow 119435 Russia

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