title: A self-splicing group I intron in the DNA polymerase gene of Bacillus subtilis bacteriophage SPO1.
abstract: We report a self-splicing intron in bacteriophage SPO1, whose host is the gram-positive Bacillus subtilis. The intron contains all the conserved features of primary sequence and secondary structure previously described for the group IA introns of eukaryotic organelles and the gram-negative bacteriophage T4. The SPO1 intron contains an open reading frame of 522 nucleotides. As in the T4 introns, this open reading frame begins in a region that is looped out of the secondary structure, but ends in a highly conserved region of the intron core. The exons encode SPO1 DNA polymerase, which is highly similar to E. coli DNA polymerase I. The demonstration of self-splicing introns in viruses of both gram-positive and gram-negative eubacteria lends further evidence for their early origin in evolution.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York, Albany 12222.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Goodrich-Blair
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Scarlato
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gott
authors.forename: M Q
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Shub
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D004256:DNA Polymerase I / Q000235:genetics; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase / Q000235:genetics*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics; D005091:Exons; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005814:Genes, Viral; D007438:Introns; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D012326:RNA Splicing; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D015678:Viral Structural Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D015678:Viral Structural Proteins; D004256:DNA Polymerase I; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase