TY - JOUR
T1 - The natural history of group I introns
AU - Haugen, Peik
AU - Simon, Dawn M.
AU - Bhattacharya, Debashish
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was generously supported by grants awarded to D.B. from the National Science Foundation (MCB 0110252, DEB 0107754), a grant from The Norwegian Research Council to P.H., and Avis E. Cone and Stanley fellowships from the University of Iowa to D.S. We thank H. Joseph Runge (Iowa) for helpful discussions.
PY - 2005/2
Y1 - 2005/2
N2 - There are four major classes of introns: self-splicing group I and group II introns, tRNA and/or archaeal introns and spliceosomal introns in nuclear pre-mRNA. Group I introns are widely distributed in protists, bacteria and bacteriophages. Group II introns are found in fungal and land plant mitochondria, algal plastids, bacteria and Archaea. Group II and spliceosomal introns share a common splicing pathway and might be related to each other. The tRNA and/or archaeal introns are found in the nuclear tRNA of eukaryotes and in archaeal tRNA, rRNA and mRNA. The mechanisms underlying the self-splicing and mobility of a few model group I introns are well understood. By contrast, the role of these highly distinct processes in the evolution of the 1500 group I introns found thus far in nature (e.g. in algae and fungi) has only recently been clarified. The explosion of new sequence data has facilitated the use of comparative methods to understand group I intron evolution in a broader context and to generate hypotheses about intron insertion, splicing and spread that can be tested experimentally.
AB - There are four major classes of introns: self-splicing group I and group II introns, tRNA and/or archaeal introns and spliceosomal introns in nuclear pre-mRNA. Group I introns are widely distributed in protists, bacteria and bacteriophages. Group II introns are found in fungal and land plant mitochondria, algal plastids, bacteria and Archaea. Group II and spliceosomal introns share a common splicing pathway and might be related to each other. The tRNA and/or archaeal introns are found in the nuclear tRNA of eukaryotes and in archaeal tRNA, rRNA and mRNA. The mechanisms underlying the self-splicing and mobility of a few model group I introns are well understood. By contrast, the role of these highly distinct processes in the evolution of the 1500 group I introns found thus far in nature (e.g. in algae and fungi) has only recently been clarified. The explosion of new sequence data has facilitated the use of comparative methods to understand group I intron evolution in a broader context and to generate hypotheses about intron insertion, splicing and spread that can be tested experimentally.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.tig.2004.12.007
DO - 10.1016/j.tig.2004.12.007
M3 - Review article
C2 - 15661357
AN - SCOPUS:12344329187
SN - 0168-9525
VL - 21
SP - 111
EP - 119
JO - Trends in Genetics
JF - Trends in Genetics
IS - 2
ER -