title: The evolution of spliced leader trans-splicing in nematodes.
abstract: Spliced leader trans-splicing occurs in many primitive eukaryotes including nematodes. Most of our knowledge of trans-splicing in nematodes stems from the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans and relatives, and from work with Ascaris. Our investigation of spliced leader trans-splicing in distantly related Dorylaimia nematodes indicates that spliced-leader trans-splicing arose before the nematode phylum and suggests that the spliced leader RNA gene complements in extant nematodes have evolved from a common ancestor with a diverse set of spliced leader RNA genes.
authors.affiliation: School of Medical Sciences, Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD, Scotland, UK.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pettitt
authors.forename: Neale
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Harrison
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Stansfield
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.forename: Berndt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008954:Models, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009348:Nematoda / Q000235:genetics*; D009690:Nucleic Acid Conformation; D010802:Phylogeny; D022821:RNA Splice Sites / Q000235:genetics; D020038:RNA, Spliced Leader / Q000235:genetics*; D020040:Trans-Splicing / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D022821:RNA Splice Sites; D020038:RNA, Spliced Leader