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MBE Advance Access originally published online on April 6, 2005
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2005 22(6):1518-1528; doi:10.1093/molbev/msi144
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org

Dispersal and Evolution of the Sinorhizobium meliloti Group II RmInt1 Intron in Bacteria that Interact with Plants

Manuel Fernández-López*, Estefanía Muñoz-Adelantado*, Moniek Gillis{dagger}, Anne Willems{dagger} and Nicolás Toro*

* Grupo de Ecología Genética, Departamento de Microbiología del Suelo y Sistemas Simbióticos, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, calle Profesor Albareda 1, Granada, Spain; and {dagger} Laboratorium voor Microbiologie, Vakgroep Biochemie, Fysiologie, Microbiologie, Faculteit Wetenschappen, Universiteit Gent, Gent, Belgium

E-mail: ntoro{at}eez.csic.es.

Group II introns are both self-splicing RNAs and mobile retroelements found in bacterial and archaeal genomes and in organelles of eukaryotes. They are thought to be the ancestors of eukaryote spliceosomal introns and non–long terminal repeat retrotransposons. We show here that RmInt1, a bacterial group II intron first described in the nitrogen-fixing symbiont of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) Sinorhizobium meliloti, is also present in other Sinorhizobium and Rhizobium species. The intron-homing sites in these species are IS elements of the ISRm2011-2 group as in S. meliloti, but ectopic insertion is also observed. We present evidence that these related bacteria have acquired RmInt1 by vertical inheritance from a common ancestor and by independent horizontal transfer events. We also show that RmInt1 is mobile in related taxa of bacteria that interact with plants and tends to evolve toward an inactive form by fragmentation, with loss of the 3' terminus including the intron-encoded protein. Our results provide an overview of the evolution and dispersion of a bacterial group II intron.

Key Words: group II intron • RmInt1 • nitrogen fixation • legumes • Sinorhizobium meliloti • Rhizobiales • ribozyme • reverse transcriptase


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