Downloaded from http://cshperspectives.cshlp.org/ on September 29, 2021 - Published by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Group II Intron RNPs and Reverse Transcriptases: From Retroelements to Research Tools Marlene Belfort1 and Alan M. Lambowitz2 1Department of Biological Sciences and RNA Institute, University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, New York 12222 2Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology and Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712 Correspondence:
[email protected];
[email protected] SUMMARY Group II introns, self-splicing retrotransposons, serve as both targets of investigation into their structure, splicing, and retromobility and a source of tools for genome editing and RNA anal- ysis. Here, we describe the first cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure determination, at 3.8–4.5 Å, of a group II intron ribozyme complexed with its encoded protein, containing a reverse transcriptase (RT), required for RNA splicing and retromobility. We also describe a method called RIG-seq using a retrotransposon indicator gene for high-throughput integration profiling of group II introns and other retrotransposons. Targetrons, RNA-guided gene targeting agents widely used for bacterial genome engineering, are described next. Finally, we detail thermostable group II intron RTs, which synthesize cDNAs with high accuracy and processiv- ity, for use in various RNA-seq applications and relate their properties to a 3.0-Å crystal structure of the protein poised for reverse transcription. Biological insights from these group II intron revelations are discussed. Outline 1 Introduction 5 Technique 4. RTs with novel enzymatic properties as potent research tools 2 Technique 1.