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Introns, Mobile Elements, and Plasmids

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Organelle Genetics

Abstract

The organellar mobilome mainly consists of mobile group I and II introns, homing endonuclease genes, and plasmids. Group I and II introns can be distinguished from each other by their sequences, secondary and tertiary RNA structures, and splicing mechanisms. These introns are potential ribozymes catalyzing their own removal from the precursor RNA transcripts. Organellar plasmids are presumed to be cryptic, although some plasmids have been associated with genetic defects. Plasmids are also of interest as, within some yeast species, plasmids appear to have been co-opted into the maintenance of telomeres in linear mitochondrial chromosomes.

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Acknowledgments

G.H.’s research on mtDNA mobile elements is supported by a Discovery Grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. I would like to thank Dr. E.A. Gibb for providing critical comments on this manuscript and Mohamed Hafez for help with the figures. This work is dedicated to my late father Georg Hausner Senior.

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  1. Department of Microbiology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, R3T 2N2

    Georg Hausner

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    Charles E. Bullerwell

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Hausner, G. (2012). Introns, Mobile Elements, and Plasmids. In: Bullerwell, C. (eds) Organelle Genetics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22380-8_13

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