Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

The Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology (한국미생물·생명공학회)
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Evidence on the Presence of $tRNA^{fMet}$ Group I Intron in the Marine Cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus

  • Muralitharan, Gangatharan (Department of Microbiology, National Faculty for Marine Cyanobacteria, Bharathidasan University) ;
  • Thajuddin, Nooruddin (Department of Microbiology, National Faculty for Marine Cyanobacteria, Bharathidasan University)
  • Published : 2008.01.31
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Abstract

Self-splicing group I introns in tRNA anticodon loops have been found in diverse groups of bacteria. In this work, we identified $tRNA^{fMet}$ group I introns in six strains of marine Synechococcus elongatus. Introns with sizes around 280 bp were consistently obtained in all the strains tested. In a phylogenetic analysis using the nucleotide sequence determined in this study with other cyanobacterial $tRNA^{fMet}$ and $tRNA^{Leu}$ intron sequences, the Synechococcus sequence was grouped together with the sequences from other unicellular cyanobacterial strains. Interestingly, the phylogenetic tree inferred from the intronic sequences clearly separates the different tRNA introns, suggesting that each family has its own evolutionary history.

Keywords

References

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