Complete sequence of C. reinhardtii plastid genome. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

C. reinhardtii possesses a single chloroplast that is widely used as a model system for the study of photosynthetic processes. It is 203,395 bp in size and exists as a population of monomeric and dimeric linear and circular genomes. Complete sequence of C. reinhardtii plastid is now available. The genome is divided by 21.2 kb inverted repeats into two single-copy regions of 80 kb and contains only 99 genes. Greater than 20% of the genome is found to be repetitive DNA which is interesting since highly repetitive sequences are rare in chloroplast genomes.