An intron-less betagamma-crystallin-type gene from the sponge Geodia cydonium.
We report the cloning of a gene encoding a betagamma-crystallin-type protein from a porifera, the Geodia cydonium sponge. The data provide direct, conclusive evidence of the existence of such a gene in the genome of an early diverged metazoan. The cloned gene is found to contain no introns, while proto-splice sites are identified in the nucleotide sequence at positions where introns are located in homologous, very recently diverged vertebrate genes. These findings are discussed in the light of the debate between the introns-late and introns-early theories.
Di Maro
Antimo
A
Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Seconda Università di Napoli, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy.
Pizzo
Elio
E
Cubellis
Maria Vittoria
MV
D'Alessio
Giuseppe
G
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003459:Crystallins / Q000235:genetics*; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011161:Porifera / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D038204:beta-Crystallins / Q000235:genetics; D038222:gamma-Crystallins / Q000235:genetics
D003459:Crystallins; D038204:beta-Crystallins; C107738:crystallin, gammaB; D038222:gamma-Crystallins; D004247:DNA