Spread of the group II intron RmInt1 and its insertion sequence target sites in the plant endosymbiont Sinorhizobium meliloti.

ABSTRACT: RmInt1 is a mobile group II intron from Sinorhizobium meliloti that is exceptionally abundant in this bacterial species. We compared the presence of RmInt1 and two of its insertion sequence homing sites (ISRm2011-2 and ISRm10-2) in two phylogenetic clusters (I and II) identified by AFLP analysis in a collection of S. meliloti field isolates from Italy. Both clusters contained several copies of the ISRm2011-2 element, which is present at high copy number in almost all S. meliloti isolates. By contrast, isolates from cluster I harbored no copies of ISRm10-2 and only a truncated copy of RmInt1, despite the absence of constraints on intron mobility in this genetic background, whereas cluster II strains harbored several copies of this intron. The absence of ISRm10-2 from one of the strains of t

SUBMITTER: Biondi EG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3190276 | biostudies-literature | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature