Hammerhead-mediated processing of satellite pDo500 family transcripts from Dolichopoda cave crickets

This work reports the discovery and functional characterization of catalytically active hammerhead motifs within satellite DNA of the pDo500 family from several DOLICHOPODA: cave cricket species. We show that in vitro transcribed RNA of some members of this satellite DNA family do self-cleave in vitro. This self-cleavage activity is correlated with the efficient in vivo processing of long primary transcripts into monomer-sized RNA. The high sequence conservation of the satellite pDo500 DNA family among genetically isolated DOLICHOPODA: schiavazzii populations, as well as other DOLICHOPODA: species, along with the fact that satellite members are actively transcribed in vivo suggests that the hammerhead-encoding satellite transcripts are under selective pressure, perhaps because they fulfil an important physiological role or function. Remarkably, this is the third example of hammerhead ribozyme structures associated with transcribed repetitive DNA sequences from animals. The possibility that such an association may not be purely coincidental is discussed.