Abstract
Saccharomycotina and Taphrinomycotina lack intron in their histone genes, except for an intron in one of histone H4 genes of Yarrowia lipolytica. On the other hand, Basidiomycota and Perizomycotina have introns in their histone genes. We compared the distributions of 81, 47, 79, and 98 introns in the fungal histone H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 genes, respectively. Based on the multiple alignments of the amino acid sequences of histones, we identified 19, 13, 31, and 22 intron insertion sites in the histone H2A, H2B, H3, and H4 genes, respectively. Surprisingly only one hot spot of introns in the histone H2A gene is shared between Basidiomycota and Perizomycotina, suggesting that most of introns of Basidiomycota and Perizomycotina were acquired independently. Our findings suggest that the common ancestor of Ascomycota and Basidiomycota maybe had a few introns in the histone genes. In the course of fungal evolution, Saccharomycotina and Taphrinomycotina lost the histone introns; Basidiomycota and Perizomycotina acquired other introns independently. In addition, most of the introns have sequence similarity among introns of phylogenetically close species, strongly suggesting that horizontal intron transfer events between phylogenetically distant species have not occurred recently in the fungal histone genes.
Highlights
Eukaryotic genomic DNA is packaged with histone proteins to form chromatin [1]
Replication of the eukaryotic chromosomes requires the synthesis of histones to package the newly replicated DNA into chromatin
As cells progress from G1 to S phase in the cell cycle, the rate of histone gene transcription increases 3- to 5fold, and the efficiency of histone pre-mRNA processing increases 8- to 10-fold, resulting in a 35-fold increase in histone protein levels [4,5]
Summary
Eukaryotic genomic DNA is packaged with histone proteins to form chromatin [1]. Eukaryotes have replication-dependent and independent histone genes [3]. Replication of the eukaryotic chromosomes requires the synthesis of histones to package the newly replicated DNA into chromatin. As cells progress from G1 to S phase in the cell cycle, the rate of histone gene transcription increases 3- to 5fold, and the efficiency of histone pre-mRNA processing increases 8- to 10-fold, resulting in a 35-fold increase in histone protein levels [4,5]. Based on the difference of transcription patterns during the cell cycle, we can identify whether a histone gene is replication-dependent or independent [6,7]. Animal and plant replication-dependent histone genes are intronless. Animal replication-dependent histone genes lack a poly(A) signal, plant replication-dependent histone genes are polyadenylated [8]
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