A mechanism for a single nucleotide intron shift

Abstract

Spliceosomal introns can occupy nearby rather than identical positions in orthologous genes (intron sliding or shifting). Stwintrons are complex intervening sequences, where an 'internal' intron interrupts one of the sequences essential for splicing, generating after its excision, a newly formed canonical intron defined as 'external'. In one experimentally demonstrated configuration, two alternatively excised internal introns, overlapping by one G, disrupt respectively the donor and the acceptor sequence of an external intron, leading to mRNAs encoding identical proteins. In a gene encoding a DHA1 antiporter in Pezizomycotina, we find a variety of predicted intron configurations interrupting the DNA stretch encoding a conserved peptidic sequence. Some sport a stwintron where the internal intron interrupts the donor of the external intron (experimentally confirmed for Aspergillus nidulans). In others, we found and demonstrate (forTrichoderma reesei) alternative, overlapping internal introns. Discordant canonical introns, one nt apart, are present in yet other species, exactly as predicted by the alternative loss of either of the internal introns at the DNA level from an alternatively spliced stwintron. An evolutionary pathway of 1 nt intron shift, involving an alternatively spliced stwintron intermediate is proposed on the basis of the experimental and genomic data presented.