Del Giudice, Luigi

Wolf, Klaus

There exist two types of mitochondrial (mt) genomes which differ essentially by the fluidity of the organization and expression of their mt DNA and the rupture between these two types coincides with the origin of metazoa. The key elements responsible for the difference between the "frozen" genomes of metazoa and the highly variable mt genomes of lower eukaryotes and plants is very likely the result of a special class of proteins encoded by the mt introns. In this paper we present an overview how introns can be excised from the genome and transposed from one genome to another. We also present a series of observations concerning the similarity of introns and their surroundings in different genes and organisms, which support, but do not prove, the hypothesis of horizontal gene transfer.

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