Integrating Phylogenetics With Intron Positions Illuminates the Origin of the Complex Spliceosome.

ABSTRACT: Eukaryotic genes are characterized by the presence of introns that are removed from pre-mRNA by a spliceosome. This ribonucleoprotein complex is comprised of multiple RNA molecules and over a hundred proteins, which makes it one of the most complex molecular machines that originated during the prokaryote-to-eukaryote transition. Previous works have established that these introns and the spliceosomal core originated from self-splicing introns in prokaryotes. Yet, how the spliceosomal core expanded by recruiting many additional proteins remains largely elusive. In this study, we use phylogenetic analyses to infer the evolutionary history of 145 proteins that we could trace back to the spliceosome in the last eukaryotic common ancestor. We found that an overabundance of proteins derived from

SUBMITTER: Vosseberg J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9887622 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature