2006/10/12 by Atsushi Nakabachi, Atsushi Yamashita, Hidehiro Toh +4 · 1 citation
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Energy · #Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences #Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion #Phytoplasmas and Hemiptera pathogens #Genome #Biology #Gene #Genetics #Circular bacterial chromosome #Gene density #Bacterial genome size #Chromosome #GC-content #Genome size #Genome evolution #Computational biology
paper · doi:10.1126/science.1134196
openalex publication_date 2006/10/12 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Previous studies have suggested that the minimal cellular genome could be as small as 400 kilobases. Here, we report the complete genome sequence of the psyllid symbiont Carsonella ruddii, which consists of a circular chromosome of 159,662 base pairs, averaging 16.5% GC content. It is by far the smallest and most AT-rich bacterial genome yet characterized. The genome has a high coding density (97%) with many overlapping genes and reduced gene length. Genes for translation and amino acid biosynthesis are relatively well represented, but numerous genes considered essential for life are missing, suggesting that Carsonella may have achieved organelle-like status.