title: Structural and functional characteristics of homing endonucleases.
abstract: Mobile genetic elements constitute a remarkably diverse group of nonessential selfish genes that provide no apparent function to the host. These selfish genes have been implicated in host extinction, speciation and architecture of genetic systems. Homing endonucleases, encoded by the open reading frames embedded in introns or inteins of mobile genetic elements, possess double-stranded DNA-specific endonuclease activity. They inflict sequence-specific double-strand breaks at or near the homing site in intron- or intein-less allele. Subsequently, through nonreciprocal exchange the insertion sequence (intron or intein) is transferred from an intein- or intron-containing allele to an intein- or intron-less allele. The components of host double-strand break repair pathway are thought to finish the "homing" process. Several lines of evidence suggest that homing endonucleases are capable of promoting transposition into ectopic sites within or across genomes for their survival as well as dispersal in natural populations. The occurrence of inteins at high frequencies serves as instructive models for understanding the mechanistic aspects of the process of homing and its evolution. This review focuses on genetic, biochemical, structural, and phylogenetic aspects of homing endonucleases, and their comparison with restriction endonucleases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Guhan
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Muniyappa
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D004720:Endonucleases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D004720:Endonucleases; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes