Table 1.

Characteristics of pre-edited and non-edited mitochondrial maxicircle genes in trypanosomatids

Left: Variation in coding region size relates to the sequence contribution of pre-edited genes. Trypanosome gene coding regions (WCR) are shorter than for related trypanosomatids Leishmania and Crithidia. These size differences reflect the contraction of pre-edited regions (Σedited); the remaining gene coding region (WCR-Σedited) is relatively invariant in length. All numbers present the base length of ungapped sequences. Right: Non-edited genes show trends of GC loss which suggest vulnerability to loss of function. Universally non-edited genes COI, ND4 and the first 500 codons of ND5 (ND5*) were analysed for codon usage (% AU codons) and possible composition changes (reducible GC%), which is the percentage of alternate synonymous codons with reduced GC content. Coding regions which are [ ] or have [ ] that impact calculations are highlighted. Numbers have been shaded by value order on a column by column basis. Trypanosomes below the solid line, with non-salivarian above and salivarian below the dashed line.