The Group II Intron Maturase: a Reverse Transcriptase and Splicing Factor Go Hand in Hand

Overview

Journal Curr Opin Struct Biol

Date 2017 May 22

PMID 28528306

Citations 12

Authors

Chen Zhao

Anna Marie Pyle

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The splicing of group II introns in vivo requires the assistance of a multifunctional intron encoded protein (IEP, or maturase). Each IEP is also a reverse-transcriptase enzyme that enables group II introns to behave as mobile genetic elements. During splicing or retro-transposition, each group II intron forms a tight, specific complex with its own encoded IEP, resulting in a highly reactive holoenzyme. This review focuses on the structural basis for IEP function, as revealed by recent crystal structures of an IEP reverse transcriptase domain and cryo-EM structures of an IEP-intron complex. These structures explain how the same IEP scaffold is utilized for intron recognition, splicing and reverse transcription, while providing a physical basis for understanding the evolutionary transformation of the IEP into the eukaryotic splicing factor Prp8.

Citing Articles

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