Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.1.30.2 (endonuclease)
 18,621 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We have previously discovered the new intron-encoded endonuclease I-Sce III by expressing, in E. coli, the ORF contained in the third intron of the yeast mitochondrial COX I gene. In this work, we analyzed the in vitro properties of partially purified I-Sce III and found that it is a very specific DNA endonuclease, tolerating relatively few base changes in its 20 base pair long target site. I-Sce III should be a useful molecular tool to analyze the structure of large genomes. Interestingly, I-Sce III is the first P1-P2 DNA endonuclease for which DNA binding properties could be analyzed by band-shift experiments. Clearly, the cleavage products corresponding to the upstream A3 exon and to the downstream A4 exon could compete with the substrate A3-A4 in forming a DNA-protein complex. However, the A3 exon competes more efficiently than the downstream A4 product. The cleavage of the two DNA strands is also asymmetric the top strand (non-transcribed strand) is cleaved faster than the bottom strand, a property found under various experimental conditions. These findings suggest that this intron-encoded DNA endonuclease may have role in the RNA splicing process of the intron.
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PMID:I-Sce III an intron-encoded DNA endonuclease from yeast mitochondria. Asymmetrical DNA binding properties and cleavage reaction. 836 85

Upon surveying the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COXI) gene of green algae, we found group I introns in three species of algae, Chlorella vulgaris (Cv), Scenedesmus quadricauda (Sq) and Protosiphon botryoides (Pb). The comparative analysis of these nucleotide sequences and their secondary structures revealed that the introns of Cv, Sq, and Pb belong to groups IB1, ID, and IB2, respectively. Each of the three introns contained an open reading frame (ORF) that showed a similarity to the sequence of the LAGLIDADG endonuclease family. However, each of the intronic ORFs in Sq and Pb had a discontinuity in the middle of' the sequences coding for the LAGLIDADG endonuclease. Either of the two ORFs could be restored to a sequence homologous to the LAGLIDADG endonuclease by the insertion of a nucleotide in the appropriate position. In Sq, a putative pseudo-knot structure was detected in the intronic ORF This suggests the occurrence of a ribosomal frameshift in the translation of the ORF. because such pseudo-knot structures are common in viral ORFs employing a (-1) ribosomal frameshift. In the phylogenetic tree that was inferred from the amino acid sequences of algal and non-algal intronic ORFs, the three algal ORFs did not make a cluster, but were scattered throughout the tree. In addition. each of the three algal ORFs showed a close relationship to the ORFs of non-algal introns that were inserted at the corresponding site of the COX] gene, suggesting distinctive origins of the three algal introns via independent horizontal transfers.
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PMID:Distinctive origins of group I introns found in the COXI genes of three gree algae. 971 6

Emerging evidence suggests that microRNA, which are well-conserved, abundant and small regulatory RNA, may be involved in the pathogenesis of human cancers. We recently reported that expression of let-7 was frequently reduced in lung cancers, and that reduced let-7 expression was significantly associated with shorter patient survival. Two members of the double-stranded RNA-specific endonuclease family, Dicer and Drosha, convert precursor forms of microRNA into their mature forms using a stepwise process. In the present study, we examined expression levels of these genes in 67 non-small cell lung cancer cases, and found for the first time that Dicer expression levels were reduced in a fraction of lung cancers with a significant prognostic impact on the survival of surgically treated cases. It should be noted that multivariate COX regression analysis showed that the prognostic impact of Dicer (P=0.001) appears to be independent of disease stage (P=0.001), while logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the higher incidence of reduced Dicer expression in poorly differentiated tumors remained significant even after correction for other parameters (P=0.02). Given the fundamental and multiple biological roles of Dicer in various cellular processes, our results suggest the involvement of reduced Dicer expression in the development of lung cancers, thus warranting further investigations of the underlying mechanisms, which can be expected to enhance understanding of the molecular pathogenesis of this fatal cancer.
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PMID:Reduced expression of Dicer associated with poor prognosis in lung cancer patients. 1572 55