Prediction of Monophyletic Groups Based on Gene Order and Sequence Similarity in Organelle DNA

Abstract

Organelle genomics has become its own field of study. Much information can be gleaned from the study of cell organelles. The differences in the genomes of organelles, such as the mitochondrion and the chloroplast are amenable to phylogenetic and cladistic studies. These differences include the genome sequence, GC%, genome length and gene order. The conserved nature of the organelle genomes and the gene inventory of both mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes also make this easier to accomplish. This paper includes a review of existing organelle genome software. These include gene annotation and genome visualization tools as well as organelle gene databases for both mitochondrion and plastid. A new R tool, available on github, called “Organelle DNA Lineages”, or ODL, was written to compare and classify organelle genomes based on their genome sequence and gene order. The software was run on the mitochondrial genomes of a set of 51 cephalopod species, delineating ten separate monophyletic groups, including argonauts, nautiluses, octopuses, cuttlefish, and six squid groups. This new tool can help enrich and expand the field of organelle genomics.