The fungal mitochondrial Nad5 pan-genic intron landscape

Abstract

An intron landscape was prepared for the fungal mitochondrial nad5 gene. A hundred and eighty-eight fungal species were examined and a total of 265 introns were noted to be located in 29 intron insertion sites within the examined nad5 genes. Two hundred and sixty-three introns could be classified as group I types and two group II introns were noted. One additional group II intron module was identified nested within a composite group I intron. Based on features related to RNA secondary structures, introns can be classified into different subtypes and it was observed that intron insertion-sites are biased towards phase 0 and they appear to be specific to an intron type. Intron landscapes could be used as a guide map to predict the location of fungal mtDNA mobile introns, which are composite elements that include a ribozyme component and in some instances open reading frames encoding homing endonucleases or reverse transcriptases and all of these have applications in biotechnology.

Keywords:

• Group I intron
• Core creep
• Intron insertion-sites
• Intron phasing

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the reviewer and the editor for their valuable comments.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.

Additional information

Funding

GH would like to acknowledge funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [Discovery Grant RGPIN-2015-06658]. In addition AW and AZ would like to acknowledge funding from the University of Manitoba GETS program.