A silent trans-splicing signal in the cuticlin-encoding gene of the plant-parasitic nematode Meloidogyne artiellia

A gene (cut-1) coding for a cuticular protein, cuticlin-1, has been isolated and sequenced in the plant parasitic nematode, Meloidogyne artiellia. The nucleotide sequence revealed a typical eukaryotic-like organization, exons and introns bordered by canonical sequences. The 5' flanking region presents nematode-specific sequence motifs, including a trans-splicing signal. Studies on the expression of this gene demonstrated that, while in the adult females cut-1 is not expressed, the removal of the introns occurs in the eggs. These experiments also indicate that cis-splicing precedes the processing of the 5' untranslated region. In no case has a trans-spliced transcript been detected. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------