Mosaic structure of the cox2 gene in the petite negative yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe: a group II intron is inserted at the same location as the otherwise unrelated group II introns in the mitochondria of higher plants

Gene
B SchäferK Wolf

Abstract

In contrast to homologous genes in other fungal mitochondrial genomes, the gene encoding subunit 2 of cytochrome oxidase (cox2) in several Schizosaccharomyces pombe strains contains a large group II intron. Its 2436 nucleotides can be folded into a typical group II intron secondary structure, possessing all the expected sequence motifs for subgroup IIA1 (Michel et al., 1989). This intron is remarkable for the following reasons: (i) Five nucleotide changes were observed compared with the continuous form of the cox2 gene in the reference strain 50 at the 3'-exon sequence, but not in the 5'-exon. (ii) One of these changes occurred at the splice point leading to a serine instead of a threonine residue in the deduced cox2 polypeptide. In all cases, the alterations resulted in the replacement of more frequently used codons by rare ones. (iii) Although the intron is able to undergo splicing, the sequence motifs thought to be necessary for interaction between the 5'-exon and the intron during the splicing process (the EBS1/IBS1 as well as the EBS2/IBS2 pairings) are unusual. (iv) The intron is inserted at the same location in the cox2 gene as the otherwise unrelated intron from higher plants.

References

Dec 1, 1977·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·F SangerA R Coulson
Feb 9, 1978·Nature·W Gilbert
Jun 5, 1991·Journal of Molecular Biology·A Jacquier, N Jacquesson-Breuleux
Jan 1, 1985·Advances in Biophysics·M Go
Nov 15, 1993·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·C L Harris-KerrC L Peebles
Jul 8, 1994·Science·A StoltzfusW F Doolittle
Nov 1, 1996·Molecular Biology and Evolution·M TomitaD L Brutlag

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