ibclogo XVI International Botanical Congess

Abstract Number: 3390
Poster No. = 1835


INTRON LOSS FROM THE MITOCHONDRIAL cox2 GENE IN 32 FLOWERING PLANTS:DOES LOSS OF THE cox2.i3 INTRON INVOLVE A CDNA/RNA INTERMEDIATE?


R.A. Oates*, J. Ouyang*, K.G.Wilson*, & Y.-L. Qiu**, *Dept of Botany, Miami Univ., Oxford,OH 45056 and **Inst. of Systematic Botany, Univ. of Zurich,Zolikerstrasse 107,8008 Zurich, Switzerland.


In many flowering plants, either one or two introns (cox2.i3 and cox2.i4) interrupt the cox2 gene. It is proposed that cox2.i3 is a primitive intron, and has been lost many times in higher plants. Through amplifying and sequencing the cox2 fragments, we report that this intron is absent from the mitochondrial cox2 gene in 32 species of flowering plants. It appears that the intron was lost in at least 17 lineages. The precise intron removal and the pre-edit condition of edit sites flanking the intron support the presence of a cDNA/RNA intermediate in the intron loss. Phlox and Cyperus warranted further investigation because they have lost both introns and show a pre-edited condition.

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