Complete, precise, and innocuous loss of multiple introns in the currently intronless, active cathepsin L-like genes, and inference from this event

Ke Jin Hu, Pak Chow Leung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

Retrotransposition typically generates pseudogenes. Here we demonstrate a different fate of the retro-processed genes through a novel mechanism in which the retro-processed genes still maintain their sequence intactness and the original functions. We show that the shrimp cathepsin L (CatL) gene MeCatL has lost all of its five introns. Also, ProEPB, the ancestor of the CatL-like barley EPBs and rice REP1, has lost all of its three introns. The multiple introns in a gene might have been eliminated simultaneously and precisely at the original locus for the CatL-like genes of shrimp, barley, rice, Drosophila, and Theileria. We reason that retrotransposition is not responsible for the generation of a processed active intronless (PAI) gene when the gene product retains its sequence intactness and its original function. We propose that double-strand-break repair (DSBR) machinery might play a role in cDNA-mediated homologous recombination (cDMHR) that causes the loss of introns. The cDMHR/DSBR pathway is probably a fundamental mechanism for intron loss in PAI genes and in some asymmetric-intron genes.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)685-696
Number of pages12
JournalMolecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
Volume38
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2006

Keywords

  • Barley
  • Cathepsin
  • Cysteine protease
  • Double-strand-break repair
  • Homologous recombination
  • Intron loss
  • Retrotransposition
  • Shrimp
  • Yeast

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Complete, precise, and innocuous loss of multiple introns in the currently intronless, active cathepsin L-like genes, and inference from this event'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this