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Nucleic Acids Research 2005 33(8):2734-2741; doi:10.1093/nar/gki564
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Published online 12 May 2005

© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that: the original authorship is properly and fully attributed; the Journal and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with the correct citation details given; if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions{at}oupjournals.org

Article

The recent transfer of a homing endonuclease gene

Peik Haugen, Odd-Gunnar Wikmark, Anna Vader, Dag H. Coucheron, Eva Sjøttem and Steinar D. Johansen*

Department of Molecular Biotechnology, RNA Research Group, Institute of Medical Biology, University of Tromsø N-9037 Tromsø, Norway

*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +47 77 64 53 67; Fax: +47 77 64 53 50; Email: steinar.johansen{at}fagmed.uit.no

Received March 10, 2005. Revised April 21, 2005. Accepted April 21, 2005.

The myxomycete Didymium iridis (isolate Panama 2) contains a mobile group I intron named Dir.S956-1 after position 956 in the nuclear small subunit (SSU) rRNA gene. The intron is efficiently spread through homing by the intron-encoded homing endonuclease I-DirI. Homing endonuclease genes (HEGs) usually spread with their associated introns as a unit, but infrequently also spread independent of introns (or inteins). Clear examples of HEG mobility are however sparse. Here, we provide evidence for the transfer of a HEG into a group I intron named Dir.S956-2 that is inserted into the SSU rDNA of the Costa Rica 8 isolate of D.iridis. Similarities between intron sequences that flank the HEG and rDNA sequences that flank the intron (the homing endonuclease recognition sequence) suggest that the HEG invaded the intron during the recent evolution in a homing-like event. Dir.S956-2 is inserted into the same SSU site as Dir.S956-1. Remarkably, the two group I introns encode distantly related splicing ribozymes with phylogenetically related HEGs inserted on the opposite strands of different peripheral loop regions. The HEGs are both interrupted by small spliceosomal introns that must be removed during RNA maturation.


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 Nucleic Acids ResHome page
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[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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