Connections between RNA splicing and DNA intron mobility in yeast mitochondria: RNA maturase and DNA endonuclease switching experiments.

The intron-encoded proteins bI4 RNA maturase and aI4 DNA endonuclease can be faithfully expressed in yeast cytoplasm from engineered forms of their mitochondrial coding sequences. In this work we studied the relationships between these two activities associated with two homologous intron-encoded proteins: the bI4 RNA maturase encoded in the fourth intron of the cytochrome b gene and the aI4 DNA endonuclease (I-SceII) encoded in the fourth intron of the gene coding for the subunit I of cytochrome oxidase. Taking advantage of both the high recombinogenic properties of yeast and the similarities between the two genes, we constructed in vivo a family of hybrid genes carrying parts of both RNA maturase and DNA endonuclease coding sequences. The presence of a sequence coding for a mitochondrial targeting peptide upstream from these hybrid genes allowed us to study the properties of their translation products within the mitochondria in vivo. We thus could analyze the ability of the recombinant proteins to complement RNA maturase deficiencies in different strains. Many combinations of the two parental intronic sequences were found in the recombinants. Their structural and functional analysis revealed the following features. (i) The N-terminal half of the bI4 RNA maturase could be replaced in total by its equivalent from the aI4 DNA endonuclease without affecting the RNA maturase activity. In contrast, replacing the C-terminal half of the bI4 RNA maturase with its equivalent from the aI4 DNA endonuclease led to a very weak RNA maturase activity, indicating that this region is more differentiated and linked to the maturase activity. (ii) None of the hybrid proteins carrying an RNA maturase activity kept the DNA endonuclease activity, suggesting that the latter requires the integrity of the aI4 protein. These observations are interesting because the aI4 DNA endonuclease is known to promote the propagation, at the DNA level, of the aI4 intron, whereas the bI4 RNA maturase, which is required for the splicing of its coding intron, also controls the splicing process of the aI4 intron. We propose a scenario for the evolution of these intronic proteins that relies on a switch from DNA endonuclease to RNA maturase activity.     

Replacement of two non-adjacent amino acids in the S.cerevisiae bi2 intron-encoded RNA maturase is sufficient to gain a homing-endonuclease activity.

Two homologous group I introns, the second intron of the cyt b gene, from related Saccharomyces species differ in their mobility. The S.capensis intron is mobile and encodes the I-ScaI endonuclease promoting intron homing, whilst the homologous S.cerevisiae intron is not mobile, but functions as an RNA maturase promoting splicing. These two intron-encoded proteins differ by only four amino acid substitutions. Taking advantage of the remarkable similarity of the two intron open reading frames and using biolistic transformation of mitochondria, we show that the replacement of only two non-adjacent residues in the S.cerevisiae maturase carboxy-terminal sequence is sufficient to induce a homing-endonuclease activity without losing the splicing function. Also, we demonstrate that these two activities reside in the S.capensis bi2-encoded protein which functions in both splicing and intron mobility in the wild-type cells. These results provide new insight into our understanding of the activity and the evolution of group I intron-encoded proteins.