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Query: EC:2.7.7.49 (reverse transcriptase)
31,746 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Group II introns al1 and al2 of the yeast mtDNA cox1 gene encode reverse transcriptase-like proteins that function in RNA splicing and may play a role in intron mobility and excision. We find that ribonucleoprotein particles from yeast mitochondria contain a reverse transcriptase activity that is likely encoded by al1 and al2 and is highly specific for the introns and their flanking exons. Using a mutant strain with elevated activity, we show that the reverse transcriptase uses either excised intron RNA or cox1 pre-mRNA as template and initiates cDNA synthesis near the 3' end of al2 and immediately downstream in E3. Our results suggest that introns al1 and al2 are retroelements, which encode reverse transcriptases that have adapted to function in RNA splicing.
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PMID:Reverse transcriptase activity associated with maturase-encoding group II introns in yeast mitochondria. 768 27

We present evidence that transcripts of the mat-r (maturase-related) genes of maize and soybean contain 15 and 14 uridines (U), respectively, at positions occupied by cytosines (C) in the mat-r gene sequences. Eleven and twelve of these C-->U edits result in an amino acid replacement. Ten C-->U edits are at corresponding nucleotides in the maize and soybean transcripts and, except for a single silent edit, the remainder are at positions in one species that are Us in the other species. This results in an increase in amino acid sequence similarity of the maize and soybean MAT-R proteins. Further, of those amino acids in maize and soybean MAT-R proteins specified by edited codons, ten are conserved in the reverse transcriptase-associated and RNA splicing-associated sequences of the cox1-I2 and/or the cox1-I1 maturases of the fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the bryophyte, Marchantia polymorpha, respectively. The implied strong selection for amino acid sequence conservation indicates that the MAT-R protein is functional. The possibility is discussed that initiation of translation of the mat-r transcripts is at a four nucleotide codon, ATAA or ATGA.
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PMID:RNA editing of mat-r transcripts in maize and soybean increases similarity of the encoded protein to fungal and bryophyte group II intron maturases: evidence that mat-r encodes a functional protein. 783 31

The recent report on RNA-mediated group II intron (IVS, intervening sequence) transposition in mitochondria (mt) of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Podospora anserina and the demonstration of reverse transcriptase (RT) activity encoded by the mobile S. cerevisiae intron cox1-aI1 suggests that group II introns constitute a new class of site-specific retro-like (retroid) elements. This is supported by the finding that the mitochondrial cob1-bI1 intron from the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, encoding an RT-like open reading frame, is transposed in mtDNA populations. In agreement with the involvement of an RNA-intermediate in IVS transposition: First, the insertion sites were preceded by at least an IBS1-like (intron binding site) motif, which corresponds to the upstream exon and suffices to form the IBS1/EBS1 (EBS: exon binding site) base-pairing interactions. Second, intron transposition was conservative with respect to sequences flanking the insertion sites. We formulated the hypothesis that transient IVS insertion at non-allelic sites followed by recombination can be viewed as a general molecular mechanism, applicable equally well to site-specific genomic instabilities involving splice-site borders of group II introns and to the formation of extra-genomic IVS plasmid DNAs (plDNAs). We used polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques to detect infrequent rearrangements in mtDNA and report here on duplicative IVS transposition, twintron formation (e.g. bI1 insertion into another bI1 intron), and IVS insertions at canonical 5' exon-intron borders in S. pombe (cob1-bI1) and in S. cerevisiae (cox1-aI1). These data substantiate the concept that group II intron homing, IVS transposition and circular IVS plDNA formation involve a common RNA-mediated mechanism. Finally, the findings suggest that extra-genomic group II IVS copies are not restricted to senescence mycelia of P. anserina, but constitute natural components of group II IVS-containing genomes.
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PMID:Transposable group II introns in fission and budding yeast. Site-specific genomic instabilities and formation of group II IVS plDNAs. 793 46

In the filamentous fungus Podospora anserina, the unavoidable phenomenon of senescence is associated with specific mitochondrial rearrangements and particularly with the amplification of some regions of the mitochondrial chromosome. Mechanisms responsible for these rearrangements are still unknown. The implication in this phenomenon, of the first intron of the mitochondrial gene cox1 (intron alpha), a class II intron that presents significant amino acid similarity with retroviral reverse transcriptases, was postulated several years ago. We demonstrate here by polymerase chain reaction experiments: (1) that senescent and young cultures contain DNA molecules precisely deleted for intronic sequences; (2) that these deletions are found to a much greater extent in senescent than in young cultures; (3) that DNA intron deletion likely results from a reverse transcriptase-mediated mechanism as indicated by the detection of copies of the gene 1 cox1 completely devoid of its 15 introns; (4) that the intron alpha-encoded protein could intervene in this process. On the whole, these results strongly suggest that in Podospora, an increase in a mitochondrial reverse transcriptase activity probably mediated by the intron alpha-encoded protein is involved in the process of senescence.
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PMID:DNA deletion of mitochondrial introns is correlated with the process of senescence in Podospora anserina. 823 Jan 90

The mitochondrial genome of the brown alga Pylaiella littoralis contains two different types of group II introns. They each encode complete complex proteins, i.e., with a reverse transcriptase domain, a maturase or X domain, and an endonuclease or H-N-H/zinc finger domain. To our knowledge, this is the first example of the presence in the same genome of introns belonging to subgroups IIA and IIB which both contain multidomained RT-like proteins. We describe the group IIA introns that interrupt the cox1 gene. The RT-like proteins contained in these introns were compared to those of the LSU rDNA group IIB introns. The phylogenetic relationships of these intron ORFs were investigated and the possible evolution of group II introns is discussed.
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PMID:The reverse-transcriptase-like proteins encoded by group II introns in the mitochondrial genome of the brown alga Pylaiella littoralis belong to two different lineages which apparently coevolved with the group II ribosyme lineages. 901 Jan 34

We describe herein a large group-II intron which is inserted in the mitochondrial cox1 gene of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe strain EF2. The intron RNA consists of 2492 nucleotides which can be folded into a secondary structure with all the expected sequence motifs of subgroup-IIA1 introns (Michel et al. 1989). Determination of the exact splice point revealed that the intron is inserted in the same codon, but 1 bp downstream, as the mobile intron aI2 in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cox1 homologue. A total of nine nucleotide changes was observed around the insertion site of the intron in the cox1 gene of strain EF2 compared with the reference strain ade7-50h(-). Seven of these changes are clustered within the 51 bp upstream of the splice point. Only one sequence deviation was found in the downstream exon. The intron is capable of splicing despite the fact that both the EBS1/IBS1 and the EBS2/IBS2 sequence motifs, thought to be necessary for correct splicing, extend over 5 instead of 6 bp. The maturase, endonuclease and reverse transcriptase domains of the putative protein encoded by the newly described S. pombe group-II intron were not closer to those encoded by the other two, cobI and cox2I, S. pombe group-II introns than to the group-II intron-encoded proteins in Allomyces, Marchantia, Podospora and Saccharomyces.
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PMID:A novel group-II intron in the cox1 gene of the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe is inserted in the same codon as the mobile group-II intron aI2 in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cox1 homologue. 1046 4

We identified group IIA introns that contain an open reading frame (ORF) in the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit I (cox1) genes of yellow algae, a diatom Thalassiosira (Th.) nordenskioeldii CCMP 992 collected from the east coast of USA, and a haptophyte Pavlova (Pa.) lutheri CCMP 1325 collected from Finland. Cognate introns of CCMP 1325 were detected in all Pa. lutheri strains investigated, which were collected from various oceans. In contrast, the intron was absent from closely related species belonging to the same genus Pavlova. This was also the case for the group II intron detected in a diatom Th. nordenskioeldii CCMP 992. The group II intron of CCMP 992 was located at the corresponding site to the group IIA intron found in Pylaiella (synonym, Pilayella) littoralis. The deduced secondary structures of these introns, one of which is from a diatom and the other from a brown alga, were virtually identical. In contrast, the haptophyte group II intron was inserted at a novel locus, and shares no particularly high sequence homology with any intron known to date. The phylogenetic tree based on the intronic ORF domain was not congruent with that based on the cox1 exon. The most prominent property of the intronic ORF tree was that introns located at homologous sites made robust pair clades irrespective of the phylogenetic relationships of the organisms. This suggests that mitochondrial group II introns often invade intronless alleles across the species barrier with site specificity. Homology analysis of the haptophyte intronic ORF suggested that it comprises three domains: reverse transcriptase (RT), RNA maturase (Ma), and H-N-H endonuclease. However, the intronic ORF of the diatom contains the Ma domain but is apparently missing the H-N-H domain, and its RT domain is most probably partly or completely lacking in function.
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PMID:Distribution of cognates of group II introns detected in mitochondrial cox1 genes of a diatom and a haptophyte. 1105 45

We describe here the complete sequence (58,507 bp) of the mitochondrial genome of the brown alga Pylaiella littoralis (Ectocarpales). This molecule displays an AT content of 62.0% and contains seventy-nine genes, most of them (73) encoded on one strand. They include the usual mitochondrial set of protist genes and a number of rarer genes. Among these, several ribosomal protein genes and the rn5 were identified. Twenty-four tRNA genes are present in this genome, insufficient to decode all genes. The other conspicuous features of this molecule are: a large (3018 nucleotides) in-frame insertion of unknown function in the cox2 gene; the presence of two different lineages of group II introns, including complete reverse transcriptase-like genes, one in the cox1 and the other in the rnl gene; the concomitant occurrence of a T7-like RNA polymerase and of several well-conserved alpha-proteobacterial-type promoters; and a small nad11 gene, coding for the first domain only of this NADH dehydrogenase subunit. Altogether, the mitochondrial genome of P. littoralis exhibits both alpha-proteobacterial characteristics and evidences of the independent integration of several exogenous DNA fragments.
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PMID:The complete sequence of a brown algal mitochondrial genome, the ectocarpale Pylaiella littoralis (L.) Kjellm. 1147 79

The mtDNA of the ascomycetous wine yeast Candida zemplinina is a circularly mapping genome of 23,114 bp. It contains 35 genes coding for the seven basic subunits of oxidative phosporylation found in yeasts (the genes encoding for NADH oxidoreductase subunits are absent), the ribosomal protein Var1, two rRNAs and 25 tRNA genes. Although protein phylogenetic analysis showed a divergent mitochondrial genome, several traits appeared preserved. The conserved gene blocks between the mtDNAs of C. zemplinina and Candida glabrata were maintained and changes in gene order and putative promoters were due to restricted genome reshuffling. New heterogeneous hairpin elements were identified scattered throughout cox1 introns. The large subunit rRNA gene harboured the first group-IIB1 intron containing a putative active reverse transcriptase (RT) in mitochondrial genomes of fungi. Phylogenetic analysis of the RT protein confirmed its closer relationship to eubacterial intronic RTs, while being only distantly related to all other fungal mitochondrial group-II introns and RTs. The findings point towards an early migration event of a eubacterial group-II intron to the mitochondrial genome of C. zemplinina.
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PMID:Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the wine yeast Candida zemplinina: intraspecies distribution of a novel group-IIB1 intron with eubacterial affiliations. 1808 38

In the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (cox1) gene of four raphidophycean flagellates Chattonella antiqua, C. marina, C. ovata, and C. minima we found two group II introns described here as Chattonella cox1-i1 and Chattonella cox1-i2 encoding an open reading frame (ORF) comprised of three domains: reverse transcriptase (RT), RNA maturase (Ma) and zinc finger (H-N-H) endonuclease domains. The secondary structures show both Chattonella cox1-i1 and Chattonella cox1-i2 belong to group IIA1, albeit the former possesses a group IIB-like secondary structural character in the epsilon' region of arm I. Our phylogenetic analysis inferred from RT domain sequences of the intronic ORF, comparison of the insertion sites, and the secondary structures of the introns suggests that Chattonella cox1-i1 likely shares an evolutionary origin with the group II introns inserted in cox1 genes of five phylogenetically diverged eukaryotes. In contrast, Chattonella cox1-i2 was suggested to bear a close evolutionary affinity to the group II introns found in diatom cox1 genes. The RT domain-based phylogeny shows a tree topology in which Chattonella cox1-i2 is nested in the diatom sequences suggesting that a diatom-to-Chattonella intron transfer has taken place. Finally, we found no intron in cox1 genes from deeper-branching raphidophyceans. Based on parsimonious discussion, Chattonella cox1-i1 and Chattonella cox1-i2 have invaded into the cox1 gene of an ancestral Chattonella cell after diverging from C. subsalsa.
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PMID:Mitochondrial group II introns in the raphidophycean flagellate Chattonella spp. suggest a diatom-to-Chattonella lateral group II intron transfer. 1934 62


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