Abstract
Homing endonucleases are often grouped into four families based on distinct sequence motifs. One of these families is known as the His-Cys box homing endonucleases and contains two clusters of conserved histidine and cysteine residues over a central 100 amino acid region. At last count, 23 members of this family had been identified. The open reading frames (ORFs) of these proteins are contained within mobile group I introns found in nuclear rDNA genes of several protists. The nuclear location of these introns and ORFs is currently unique among the homing endonuclease families and poses an intriguing puzzle regarding their expression from non-coding rRNA transcripts.
The best-studied member of the His-Cys box homing endonucleases is I-PpoI from the myxomycete Physarum polycephalum. Following an introduction to all of the known members of the His-Cys box endonuclease family, much of the following chapter will outline the extensive characterization of I-PpoI structure and function. Although our understanding of how I-PpoI is expressed in cells is still not fully complete, the means by which I-PpoI specifically recognizes a single cleavage site in the host genome to mediate homing of its host intron is widely accepted. Details of DNA recognition and the catalytic mechanism of nucleolytic cleavage have been ascertained from both in vivo and in vitro activity assays as well as from extensive X-ray crystallographic structural analyses of the enzyme bound to its DNA substrate.
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Galburt, E.A., Jurica, M.S. (2005). His-Cys Box Homing Endonucleases. In: Belfort, M., Wood, D.W., Stoddard, B.L., Derbyshire, V. (eds) Homing Endonucleases and Inteins. Nucleic Acids and Molecular Biology, vol 16. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-29474-0_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-29474-0_6
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