Selfish DNA: homing endonucleases find a home.
Self-splicing group I introns come in two flavours - those with a homing endonuclease to promote mobility of the intron, and those without an endonuclease. How homing endonucleases and self-splicing introns associate to form a composite selfish genetic element is a question of long-standing interest. Recent work has revealed that a shared characteristic of both introns and endonucleases, the targeting of conserved sequences, may provide the impetus for the evolution of composite mobile genetic elements.
Edgell
David R
DR
Department of Biochemistry, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada. rwb@st-andrews.ac.uk
D004720:Endonucleases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D007438:Introns / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
D004720:Endonucleases