title: Horizontal transmission of group-I ribozymes: viruses as a carrier of the introns.
abstract: The nucleotide sequences of two self-splicing group I introns found in viruses that infect the eukaryotic green alga Chlorella were compared with those of 19 nuclear group I introns of 11 green algae, 1 red alga, 2 yeasts and 1 protist. The similarity ranging from 69.5% to 89.0% in any comparison strongly suggested a close relatedness of these introns. Since this kind of viruses infect algal cells residing in protists such as Paramecium, they may serve as a mediator to spread group I introns horizontally among organisms of different phylogenetic kingdoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Fermentation Technology, Faculty of Engineering, Hiroshima University, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Songsri
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tamura
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002708:Chlorella / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D000460:Chlorophyta / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D007438:Introns; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010247:Paramecium / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D016337:RNA, Catalytic / Q000235:genetics*; D000461:Rhodophyta / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013045:Species Specificity; D013768:Tetrahymena / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology; D014780:Viruses / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics*; D015003:Yeasts / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology
chemical_list: D016337:RNA, Catalytic