Group II Introns Generate Functional Chimeric Relaxase Enzymes with Modified Specificities through Exon Shuffling at Both the RNA and DNA Level.

ABSTRACT: Group II introns are large self-splicing RNA enzymes with a broad but somewhat irregular phylogenetic distribution. These ancient retromobile elements are the proposed ancestors of approximately half the human genome, including the abundant spliceosomal introns and non-long terminal repeat retrotransposons. In contrast to their eukaryotic derivatives, bacterial group II introns have largely been considered as harmful selfish mobile retroelements that parasitize the genome of their host. As a challenge to this view, we recently uncovered a new intergenic trans-splicing pathway that generates an assortment of mRNA chimeras. The ability of group II introns to combine disparate mRNA fragments was proposed to increase the genetic diversity of the bacterial host by shuffling coding sequences. He

SUBMITTER: LaRoche-Johnston F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7947834 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature