Unexpected abundance of self-splicing introns in the genome of bacteriophage Twort: introns in multiple genes, a single gene with three introns, and exon skipping by group I ribozymes.

ABSTRACT: Analysis of RNA that can be labeled with GTP indicates the existence of group I introns in genes of at least three transcriptional classes in the genome of Staphylococcus aureus bacteriophage Twort. A single ORF of 142 amino acids (Orf142) is interrupted by three self-splicing group I introns, providing the first example of a phage gene with multiple intron insertions. Twort Orf142 is encoded in a message that is abundant 15-20 min after infection and is highly similar to a late gene product (Orf8) of the morphologically related Listeria phage A511. The introns in orf142 are spliced in vivo and contain all the conserved features of primary sequence and secondary structure of group I introns in subgroup IA2, which includes the introns in Escherichia coli phage T4 and the Bacillus phages bet

SUBMITTER: Landthaler M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC22036 | biostudies-literature | 1999 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature