Joyce G F, van der Horst G, Inoue T
Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, CA 92138.
Nucleic Acids Res. 1989 Oct 11;17(19):7879-89. doi: 10.1093/nar/17.19.7879.
We have made sizeable internal deletions within the self-splicing group I intron of Tetrahymena thermophila. Deletions were made in a piecewise manner in order to remove secondary structural elements thought to be extraneous to the catalytic center of the molecule. The resulting deletion mutants retain self-splicing activity, albeit under modified reaction conditions that enhance duplex stability. Considering those portions of the molecule that can be deleted without a loss of catalytic activity, one is left with a catalytic center of approximately 130 nucleotides that is solely responsible for the molecule's activity.
我们对嗜热四膜虫的自我剪接I组内含子进行了大量内部缺失。缺失是以分段方式进行的，以去除被认为与分子催化中心无关的二级结构元件。所得的缺失突变体保留了自我剪接活性，尽管是在增强双链稳定性的修饰反应条件下。考虑到分子中那些可以在不丧失催化活性的情况下被删除的部分，剩下的是一个大约130个核苷酸的催化中心，它完全负责分子的活性。
