A mobile intron facilitates interference competition between co-infecting viruses

Abstract

Mobile introns containing homing endonucleases are widespread in nature and have long been assumed to be selfish elements that provide no benefit to the host organism. These genetic elements are common in viruses, but whether they confer a selective advantage is unclear. Here we studied a mobile intron in bacteriophage {Phi}PA3 and found its homing endonuclease gp210 contributes to viral competition by interfering with the virogenesis of co-infecting phage {Phi}KZ. We show that gp210 targets a specific sequence in its competitor {Phi}KZ, preventing the assembly of progeny viruses. This work reports the first demonstration of how a mobile intron can be deployed to engage in interference competition and provide a reproductive advantage. Given the ubiquity of introns, this selective advantage likely has widespread evolutionary implications in nature.