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. 2002 Dec;68(12):6392-8.
doi: 10.1128/AEM.68.12.6392-6398.2002.

Bacterial group II introns in a deep-sea hydrothermal vent environment

Mircea Podar  1 , Lauren Mullineaux, Hon-Ren Huang, Philip S Perlman, Mitchell L Sogin
Affiliations

Bacterial group II introns in a deep-sea hydrothermal vent environment

Mircea Podar et al. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2002 Dec.

Abstract

Group II introns are catalytic RNAs and mobile retrotransposable elements known to be present in the genomes of some nonmarine bacteria and eukaryotic organelles. Here we report the discovery of group II introns in a bacterial mat sample collected from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent near 9 degrees N on the East Pacific Rise. One of the introns was shown to self-splice in vitro. This is the first example of marine bacterial introns from molecular population structure studies of microorganisms that live in the proximity of hydrothermal vents. These types of mobile genetic elements may prove useful in improving our understanding of bacterial genome evolution and may serve as valuable markers in comparative studies of bacterial communities.

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Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Alignment of RT domains 5 to 7 and the X domains of the three EPR vent introns with the sequences of two bacterial group II introns, E.c.B (E. coli IntB) and S.me (S. meliloti RmInt1). Invariant residues are indicated in black blocks, and those that are at least 60% conserved are shaded. Also shown are the consensus (Cons.) sequence for the three EPR Vent introns and the percentages of identity between them.
FIG. 2.
FIG. 2.
Unrooted Bayesian consensus tree showing the relationship of the EPR Vent-I1 ORF with other ORFs (RT and X domains) from known bacterial introns and representatives of eukaryotic group II introns. The values represent the bipartition numbers (percent probability based on 104 trees). GenBank accession numbers are in brackets.
FIG. 3.
FIG. 3.
Secondary-structure diagram of the EPR Vent-I1 intron RNA. The ORF in domain 4 is indicated by the thick line. Known tertiary interactions in group II introns are shaded or indicated by arrows. nt, nucleotides.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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