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Journal of Bacteriology, December 2004, p. 8153-8155, Vol. 186, No. 23
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.23.8153-8155.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

A Self-Splicing Group I Intron in DNA Polymerase Genes of T7-Like Bacteriophages

Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, New York

Received 1 July 2004/ Accepted 18 August 2004

Group I introns are inserted into genes of a wide variety of bacteriophages of gram-positive bacteria. However, among the phages of enteric and other gram-negative proteobacteria, introns have been encountered only in phage T4 and several of its close relatives. Here we report the insertion of a self-splicing group I intron in the coding sequence of the DNA polymerase genes of I and W31, phages that are closely related to T7. The introns belong to subgroup IA2 and both contain an open reading frame, inserted into structural element P6a, encoding a protein belonging to the HNH family of homing endonucleases. The introns splice efficiently in vivo and self-splice in vitro under mild conditions of ionic strength and temperature. We conclude that there is no barrier for maintenance of group I introns in phages of proteobacteria.

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