Faculty Collaboration Database

Group II Introns: Highly Structured yet Dynamic. Chimia (Aarau) 2023 Apr 26;77(4):235-241

Date

12/04/2023

Pubmed ID

38047803

DOI

10.2533/chimia.2023.235

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85159709565 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)

Abstract

RNA splicing, the removal of introns and ligation of exons, is a crucial process during mRNA maturation. Group II introns are large ribozymes that self-catalyze their splicing, as well as their transposition. They are living fossils of spliceosomal introns and eukaryotic retroelements. The yeast mitochondrial Sc.ai5γ is the first identified and best-studied self-splicing group II intron. A combination of biochemical, biophysical, and computational tools enables studying its catalytic properties, structure, and dynamics, while also serving to develop new therapeutic and biotechnological tools. We survey the history of group II intron studies paralleling the trends in RNA methodology with Sc.ai5γ in the spotlight.

Author List

Ahunbay E, Zelger-Paulus S, Sigel RKO

Author

Ergun Ahunbay PhD Professor in the Radiation Oncology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Biophysics
Biotechnology
Catalysis
Introns
Mitochondria