J. Roman et Sa. Woodson, INTEGRATION OF THE TETRAHYMENA GROUP-I INTRON INTO BACTERIAL RIBOSOMAL-RNA BY REVERSE SPLICING IN-VIVO, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United Statesof America, 95(5), 1998, pp. 2134-2139
Horizontal gene transfer is thought to contribute to the wide distribu
tion of group I introns among organisms. Integration of an intron into
foreign RNA or DNA by reverse self-splicing, followed by reverse tran
scription and recombination, could lead to its transposition, Reverse
self-splicing of group I introns has been demonstrated in vitro, but n
ot in vivo. Here we report RNA-dependent integration of the Tetrahymen
a intron into the 23S rRNA in Escherichia coil, Analysis of products b
y Northern blot and reverse transcription-PCR amplification revealed p
recise intron insertion into a site homologous to the natural splice j
unction, Products are sensitive to treatment with RNase but not DNase
and depend on the splicing activity of the intron, Partial reaction wi
th 11 novel sites in the 23S RNA that are complementary to the guide s
equence of the intron illustrates lower specificity than intron homing
, Reverse splicing of the Tetrahymena intron in bacteria demonstrates
the possibility of RNA-catalyzed transposition of group I introns in f
oreign hosts.