Nucleolar introns from Physarum flavicomum contain insertion elements that may explain how mobile group I introns gained their open reading frames.

Comparison of two group I intron sequences in the nucleolar genome of the myxomycete Physarum flavicomum to their homologs in the closely related Physarum polycephalum revealed insertion-like elements. One of the insertion-like elements consists of two repetitive sequence motifs of 11 and 101 bp in five and three copies, respectively. The smaller motif, which flanks the larger, resembles a target duplication and indicates a relationship to transposons or retroelements. The insertion-like elements are found in the peripheral loops of the RNA structure; the positions occupied by the ORFs of mobile nucleolar group I introns. The P. flavicomum introns are 1184 and 637 bp in size, located in the large subunit ribosomal RNA gene, and can be folded into group I intron structures at the RNA level. However, the intron 2s from both P. flavicomum and P. polycephalum contain an unusual core region that lacks the P8 segment. None of the introns are able to self-splice in vitro. Southern analysis of different isolates indicates that the introns are not optional in myxomycetes.