Summary
During interspecific crosses between Chlamydomonas eugametos and Chlamydomonas moewusii, an optional group I intron of 955 base pairs (CeLSU· 5) in the C. eugametos chloroplast large subunit rRNA gene undergoes a duplicative transposition event which is associated with frequent co-conversion of flanking cpDNA sequences. In the present study, we show that the basic protein of 218 amino acids encoded by CeLSU· 5 could mediate the phenomenon of intron transposition, also called intron homing. We overexpressed the ORF specifying this protein in E. coli using expression vectors that contain a C. moewusii cpDNA sequence encompassing the intron homing site. The expression product was found to exhibit a double-strand DNA endonuclease activity that is specific for the homing site. This activity was detected in vivo by self-linearization of the expression plasmids.
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Communicated by C. W. Birky, Jr.
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Gauthier, A., Turmel, M. & Lemieux, C. A group I intron in the chloroplast large subunit rRNA gene of Chlamydomonas eugametos encodes a double-strand endonuclease that cleaves the homing site of this intron. Curr Genet 19, 43–47 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00362086
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00362086