Jacquier A
Laboratoire du Métabolisme des ARN, URA1149 du CNRS, Département des Biotechnologies, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
Biochimie. 1996;78(6):474-87. doi: 10.1016/0300-9084(96)84754-7.
Group II introns are found in organelle genomes of plants, fungi and algae as well as in some bacteria. Some group II introns have been shown to self-splice in vitro and thus constitute examples of ribozymes. Their splicing pathway is analogous to the splicing pathway of nuclear pre-mRNA introns. They thus constitute simple models to analyze RNA catalysis of this type of splicing reactions. In this review article, I will summarize our current state of understanding of the ribozyme activity of group II introns and show that their large size correlates with their ability to perform complex tasks. After discussing the similarities found between group II and nuclear pre-mRNA introns, I will briefly evoke how the ribozyme activity of group II introns might be involved in their transposition at the DNA level.
II类内含子存在于植物、真菌和藻类的细胞器基因组以及一些细菌中。一些II类内含子已被证明在体外能自我剪接，因此构成了核酶的实例。它们的剪接途径类似于核前体mRNA内含子的剪接途径。因此，它们构成了分析这类剪接反应的RNA催化作用的简单模型。在这篇综述文章中，我将总结我们目前对II类内含子核酶活性的理解现状，并表明它们的大尺寸与其执行复杂任务的能力相关。在讨论了II类内含子与核前体mRNA内含子之间的相似性之后，我将简要提及II类内含子的核酶活性可能如何在DNA水平上参与它们的转座。
