Mitochondrial genome of marine seaweed Chondrus crispus. Chondrus crispus

Chondrus crispus is a common marine seaweed found in both European and the Atlantic North American intertidal coastline. It appears like a low bushy plant which, when reproductive, may have small bumps near the tips. It appears in variety of forms and colours. The color varies from dark red to green and yellow or white depending on the sunlight and availability of nutrients. They are highly stress tolerant. Cell wall of C. crispus is rich in carrageenan, a mucopolysaccharide, which is used as thickener in food products. Mitochondria of C. crispus has been completely sequenced using DNA isolated from female gametophytic tissue. It is a circular molecule of 25,836 nucleotides, with an overall A + T content of 72.1%. It has high coding density with 51 genes identified.