Homing endonucleases residing within inteins: evolutionary puzzles awaiting genetic solutions

被引：29

作者：

Barzel, Adi ^{[1
]}

Naor, Adit ^{[1
]}

Privman, Eyal ^{[2
]}

Kupiec, Martin ^{[1
]}

Gophna, Uri ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Tel Aviv Univ, Dept Mol Microbiol & Biotechnol, George S Wise Fac Life Sci, IL-69978 Tel Aviv, Israel

[2] Tel Aviv Univ, Dept Cell Biol & Immunol, George S Wise Fac Life Sci, IL-69978 Tel Aviv, Israel

来源：

BIOCHEMICAL SOCIETY TRANSACTIONS | 2011年 / 39卷

关键词：

archaeon; endonuclease; halophile; homing endonuclease (HEN); intein; ARCHAEON HALOFERAX-VOLCANII; SELECTIVE ADVANTAGE; SHUTTLE VECTORS; DNA; RECOMBINATION; DEGENERATION; CONFERS; GENOME; FAMILY; YEAST;

D O I：

10.1042/BST0390169

中图分类号：

Q5 [生物化学]; Q7 [分子生物学];

学科分类号：

071010 ; 081704 ;

摘要：

Inteins are selfish genetic elements that disrupt the sequence of protein-coding genes and are excised post-translationally. Most inteins also contain a HEN (homing endonuclease) domain, which is important for their horizontal transmission. The present review focuses on the evolution of inteins and their nested HENs, and highlights several unsolved questions that could benefit from molecular genetic approaches. Such approaches can be well carried out in halophilic archaea, which are naturally intein-rich and have highly developed genetic tools for their study. In particular, the fitness effects of habouring an intein/HEN can be tested in direct competition assays, providing additional insights that will improve current evolutionary models.

引用

页码：169 / 173

页数：5

共 37 条

[1] Intercellular mobility and homing of an archaeal rDNA intron confers a selective advantage over intron(-) cells of Sulfolobus acidocaldarius [J].