title: The Cryphonectria parasitica mitochondrial rns gene: plasmid-like elements, introns and homing endonucleases.
abstract: The mt-rns gene of Cryphonectria parasitica is 9872bp long and includes two group I and two group II introns. An analysis of intronic protein-encoding sequences revealed that LAGLIDADG ORFs, which usually are associated with group I introns, were transferred at least twice into group II introns. A plasmid-like mitochondrial element (plME) that appears in high amounts in previously mutagen-induced mit1 and mit2 hypovirulent mutants of the Ep155 standard virulent strain of C. parasitica was found to be derived from a short region of the mt-rns gene, including the exon 1 and most of the first intron. The plME is a 4.2-kb circular, multimeric DNA and an autonomously-replicating mtDNA fragment. Although sexual transmission experiments indicate that the plME does not directly cause hypovirulence, its emergence is one manifestation of the many complex molecular and genetic events that appear to underlie this phenotype.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824-4320, USA. claudia.vitorello@ufabc.edu.br
authors.forename: Claudia B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Monteiro-Vitorello
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hausner
authors.forename: Denise B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Searles
authors.forename: Ewan A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Gibb
authors.forename: Dennis W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Fulbright
authors.forename: Helmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bertrand
mesh_terms: D001203:Ascomycota / Q000235:genetics*; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D004720:Endonucleases / Q000378:metabolism; D005800:Genes, Fungal; D007438:Introns; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D010957:Plasmids; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D004720:Endonucleases