A CONSERVED INTRON IN THE V-ATPASE-A SUBUNIT GENES OF PLANTS AND ALGAE

Amplification and sequencing of part of the coding regions of the catalytic V-type ATPase subunit shows the presence of (at least) two genes in all land plants as well as the conservative insertion of a noncoding sequence. The two genes exhibit a coding region of the same length but differ in the number of nucleotides present in the intron. The latter is surprisingly conserved suggesting the presence of functional constraints on the intron sequences. The findings presented in this report indicate that introns from plants and animals are characterized by different internal structural elements.