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Mol Cell Biol, July 1998, p. 3880-3888, Vol. 18, No. 7
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Schistosome Satellite DNA Encodes Active Hammerhead Ribozymes

Gerardo Ferbeyre,1 dagger James M. Smith,2 and Robert Cedergren1 *

Département de Biochimie, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7,1 and Institute of Parasitology, Macdonald Campus of McGill University, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, Quebec, Canada H9X 3V92

Received 11 February 1998/Returned for modification 2 April 1998/Accepted 20 April 1998

Using a computer program designed to search for RNA structural motifs in sequence databases, we have found a hammerhead ribozyme domain encoded in the Smalpha repetitive DNA of Schistosoma mansoni. Transcripts of these repeats are expressed as long multimeric precursor RNAs that cleave in vitro and in vivo into unit-length fragments. This RNA domain is able to engage in both cis and trans cleavage typical of the hammerhead ribozyme. Further computer analysis of S. mansoni DNA identified a potential trans cleavage site in the gene coding for a synaptobrevin-like protein, and RNA transcribed from this gene was efficiently cleaved by the Smalpha ribozyme in vitro. Similar families of repeats containing the hammerhead domain were found in the closely related Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosomatium douthitti species but were not present in Schistosoma japonicum or Heterobilharzia americana, suggesting that the hammerhead domain was not acquired from a common schistosome ancestor.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Département de Biochimie, Université de Montréal, C. P. 6128, succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3J7. Phone: (514) 343-6320. Fax: (514) 343-2210. E-mail: ceder{at}poste.umontreal.ca.

dagger Present address: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724.

Mol Cell Biol, July 1998, p. 3880-3888, Vol. 18, No. 7
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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