A horizontally acquired group II intron in the chloroplast psbA gene of a psychrophilic Chlamydomonas: in vitro self-splicing and genetic evidence for maturase activity.

The majority of known group II introns are from chloroplast genomes, yet the first self-splicing group II intron from a chloroplast gene was reported only recently, from the psbA gene of the euglenoid, Euglena myxocylindracea. Herein, we describe a large (2.6-kb) group II intron from the psbA gene (psbA1) of a psychrophilic Chlamydomonas sp.