ArticleBMC biology2026
The tiny germline chromosomes of Paramecium aurelia have an exceptionally high recombination rate and are capped by a new class of Helitrons.
Article in BMC biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- The mechanistic and evolutionary diversity of programmed DNA elimination.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- The tiny germline chromosomes of Paramecium aurelia have an exceptionally high recombination rate and are capped by a new class of Helitrons.BMC biology · 2026Article
- A H3K27me3 reader complex couples H3K27me3 accumulation to nascent transcription of transposable elements in Paramecium.Genome biology · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
27 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundParamecia belong to the ciliate phylum of unicellular eukaryotes characterized by nuclear dimorphism. A diploid germline micronucleus (MIC) transmits genetic information across sexual generations. A polyploid transcriptionally active somatic macronucleus (MAC) develops at each sexual generation from a copy of the MIC through programmed DNA elimination (PDE) of > 30% of germline DNA. PDE requires the domesticated PiggyMac (Pgm) transposase. Assembly of Paramecium germline genomes has presented an enormous challenge owing to the difficulty of MIC isolation.
resultsWe report chromosome-scale short-read MIC assemblies for 7 species from the P. aurelia species complex. We discovered a novel clade of Helitrons, with 9-10-kb transposase ORFs under purifying selection, that have remained active in all P. aurelia lineages. A long-read assembly for P. tetraurelia together with a genetic linkage map provided a nearly telomere-to-telomere assembly.
conclusionsThe ~ 100-Mb genome consists of tiny (300 kb-1.2 Mb) and numerous (~ 160) germline chromosomes with the highest recombination rate ever reported for a eukaryote (420 cM/Mb). The ends of the chromosomes consist of Helitrons inserted in telomeric C
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