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The role of introns in evolution
Author(s) -
Rogers John H.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/0014-5793(90)81282-s
Subject(s) - intron , group ii intron , rna splicing , exon , minor spliceosome , biology , genetics , gene , group i catalytic intron , exon shuffling , molecular evolution , evolutionary biology , splicing factor , alternative splicing , rna , genome
What are the roles of ‘classical’ introns in the evolution of nuclear genes, and what was the origin of these introns? Exon shuffling has been important in the evolution of cell surface and extracellular proteins, but the evidence for it in respect of intracellular proteins is weak. Intron distributions imply that some introns have been removed while others have been inserted in the course of evolution; ancestral patterns of introns may thus have been obscured. Recent evidence on the self‐splicing and reverse‐splicing abilities of Group II introns supports the hypothesis that these could have been the ancestors of classical introns.