Study on spliceosomal intron evolution through inspecting mitochondrial introns

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H07451
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Evolutionary biology
• Research Institution: Institute of Physical and Chemical Research
• Principal Investigator: Nishimura Yuki 国立研究開発法人理化学研究所, バイオリソースセンター, 特別研究員 (20783012)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: ミトコンドリアゲノム / グループIIイントロン / スプライソソーマルイントロン / カタブレファリス類 / 有中心粒太陽虫類

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Splisosomal (sp) introns in eukaryotic nuclear genome are thought to be derived from group II (gII) introns in mitochondrial genome (mtDNA). The goal of this study is to obtain the clues of the evolution from gII intron to sp intron by investigating the diversity of gII intron in mtDNAs. Two mtDNAs from the organisms belong to kathablepharid and centroheliozoa were completely sequenced. Although the mtDNAs of two species includes a few gII introns, I found the lateral gene transfer of another type of intron and C-to-U RNA-type editing from these mtDNA, which extending the our knowledge on mtDNA diversity.

Free Research Field

オルガネラゲノム、イントロン、原生生物学、分子進化学