Department of Molecular Biology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
Science. 2024 Jul 5;385(6704):105-112. doi: 10.1126/science.adl1356. Epub 2024 Jul 4.
Introns containing homing endonucleases are widespread in nature and have long been assumed to be selfish elements that provide no benefit to the host organism. These genetic elements are common in viruses, but whether they confer a selective advantage is unclear. In this work, we studied intron-encoded homing endonuclease gp210 in bacteriophage ΦPA3 and found that it contributes to viral competition by interfering with the replication of a coinfecting phage, ΦKZ. We show that gp210 targets a specific sequence in ΦKZ, which prevents the assembly of progeny viruses. This work demonstrates how a homing endonuclease can be deployed in interference competition among viruses and provide a relative fitness advantage. Given the ubiquity of homing endonucleases, this selective advantage likely has widespread evolutionary implications in diverse plasmid and viral competition as well as virus-host interactions.
内含归巢内切酶的内含子在自然界中广泛存在,长期以来一直被认为是对宿主生物体没有任何益处的自私元件。这些遗传元件在病毒中很常见,但它们是否赋予了选择优势尚不清楚。在这项工作中,我们研究了噬菌体ΦPA3 中的内含子编码的归巢内切酶 gp210,并发现它通过干扰共感染噬菌体 ΦKZ 的复制,有助于病毒竞争。我们表明,gp210 靶向 ΦKZ 中的特定序列,从而阻止了子代病毒的组装。这项工作展示了归巢内切酶如何在病毒之间的干扰竞争中发挥作用,并提供相对的适应度优势。鉴于归巢内切酶的普遍性,这种选择优势可能在质粒和病毒竞争以及病毒-宿主相互作用等多种情况下具有广泛的进化意义。
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