Published in

American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, 6704(385), p. 105-112, 2024

DOI: 10.1126/science.adl1356

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An intron endonuclease facilitates interference competition between coinfecting viruses

This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

Introns containing homing endonucleases are widespread in nature and have long been assumed to be selfish elements that provide no benefit to the host organism. These genetic elements are common in viruses, but whether they confer a selective advantage is unclear. In this work, we studied intron-encoded homing endonuclease gp210 in bacteriophage ΦPA3 and found that it contributes to viral competition by interfering with the replication of a coinfecting phage, ΦKZ. We show that gp210 targets a specific sequence in ΦKZ, which prevents the assembly of progeny viruses. This work demonstrates how a homing endonuclease can be deployed in interference competition among viruses and provide a relative fitness advantage. Given the ubiquity of homing endonucleases, this selective advantage likely has widespread evolutionary implications in diverse plasmid and viral competition as well as virus-host interactions.