Abstract 1625 Investigating the Functional Significance of Inteins in Halobacterium salinarum

We are interested in studying mobile genes, called inteins, found in haloarchaea. Inteins are genes that interrupt coding segments of DNA and catalyze their own post-translational excision through the process of protein splicing. There are two inteins found in the archaeal halophile Halobacterium salinarum, interrupting the genes for DNA PolII and for cdc-21. To determine if these intein genes play a role in Halobacterium salinarum, we have created two transgenic Halobacterium salinarum strains that each lack one of the inteins via a pop-in/pop-out homologous recombination process.