Transposition of a group II intron

Among mobile genetic elements, self-splicing introns are of particular interest. They belong to either group I or group II depending on their three-dimensional structure. Homing, the systematic intron invasion of an intronless gene when it encounters its homologous intron-bearing allele, is the only...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1993-11, Vol.366 (6451), p.176-178
Main Authors: Sellem, Carole H, Lecellier, Ga& euml, l, Belcour, L& eacute, on
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ascomycota - genetics
Biological and medical sciences
Cellular biology
DNA Transposable Elements
DNA, Fungal - genetics
DNA, Mitochondrial - genetics
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Genetics
Introns
Molecular and cellular biology
Molecular genetics
Molecular Sequence Data
Podospora anserina
Polymerase Chain Reaction
Recombination, Genetic
Ribonucleic acid
RNA
RNA, Transfer, Ile - genetics
RNA, Transfer, Ser - genetics
Transcription. Transcription factor. Splicing. Rna processing
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Among mobile genetic elements, self-splicing introns are of particular interest. They belong to either group I or group II depending on their three-dimensional structure. Homing, the systematic intron invasion of an intronless gene when it encounters its homologous intron-bearing allele, is the only means for intron mobility so far demonstrated. It depends on the activity of the intron-encoded protein and is very specific for the acceptor site. Intron transposition, the transfer of an intron to a novel site, predicted on the basis of phylogenetic studies and in vitro reverse-splicing experiments, has been proposed to be responsible for evolutionary intron spreading. Here we present results from polymerase chain reaction experiments consistent with transposition of a group II intron. This event is proposed to account for the site-specific deletion in the mitochondrial chromosome of the fungus Podospora anserina that is associated with the premature death syndrome and might also be involved in the senescence process affecting this species.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/366176a0