title: The splicing of transposable elements and its role in intron evolution.
abstract: Recent studies have demonstrated that transposable elements in maize and Drosophila are spliced from pre-mRNA. These transposable element introns represent the first examples of recent addition of introns into nuclear genes. The eight reported examples of transposable element splicing include members of the maize Ac/Ds and Spm/dSpm and the Drosophila P and 412 element families. The details of the splicing of these transposable elements and their relevance to models of intron origin are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Botany Department, University of Georgia, Athens 30602.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Purugganan
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wessler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004330:Drosophila / Q000235:genetics; D005796:Genes; D007438:Introns; D008957:Models, Genetic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D012322:RNA Precursors / Q000378:metabolism; D012326:RNA Splicing; D003313:Zea mays / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D012322:RNA Precursors