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Clostridium difficile IStron CdISt1: discovery of a variant encoding two complete transposase-like proteins
Oliver Hasselmayer1, Veit Braun, Claudia Nitsche
1Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, D-55101 Mainz, Germany. hasselm@mail.uni-mainz.de
Abstract:
Screening a Clostridium difficile strain collection for the chimeric element CdISt1, we identified two additional variants, designated CdISt1-0 and CdISt1-III. In in vitro assays, we could prove the self-splicing ribozyme activity of these variants. Structural comparison of all known CdISt1 variants led us to define four types of IStrons that we designated CdISt1-0 through CdISt1-III. Since CdISt1-0 encodes two complete transposase-like proteins (TlpA and TlpB), we suggest that it represents the original genetic element, hypothesized before to have originated by fusion of a group I intron and an insertion sequence element.