genes of ancient organism
Yale scientists report in the journal Nature that the "missing" genes for tRNA in an ancient parasite are made up by splicing together sequences in distant parts of the DNA genome.
The research led by Dieter Söll, the Henry Ford II Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, focuses on the most ancient organism with a known genome sequence: Nanoarchaeum equitans, a member of a new phylogenetic kingdom in the Archaea containing organisms that are primitive, parasitic and extremophile, or notable for living in the most extreme environments.
To their surprise, members of Söll's team found that, although the genome of Nanoarchaeum lacks several intact tRNA genes, functional forms of those tRNAs can be made by copying from two distant DNA sequences -- and joining them.
The regions on the separate pieces that allow them to find each other and splice are somewhat similar to internal sequences found in tRNA genes of more complex organisms. These regions, termed introns, are sequences that are cut out of whole gene transcripts during the process of tRNA maturation. The known tRNA introns in organisms like yeast, however, appear to have no function. Therefore, modern tRNA introns might be remnants of an old essential process of tRNA biosynthesis.
"These results may point to extremophiles in the kingdom of Archaea as predecessors of more modern organisms that have gained a genetic load in the process of evolution," says Söll. "Or they may represent a specialization that has rid itself of genetic baggage to exist in extreme environments."
Understanding how primitive organisms like Nanoarchaea operate gives clues to -- but not proof of -- the relationship between modern and ancient organisms, says the scientist.
Other authors on the paper include Lennart Randau and Michael J. Hohn from Yale, and Richard Münch and Dieter Jahn from the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany. This work was supported by grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the Department of Energy, and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
-- By Janet Rettig Emanuel
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