ARCHAEAL RIBOSOMAL-RNA OPERONS, INTRON SPLICING AND HOMING ENDONUCLEASES, RNA-POLYMERASE OPERONS AND PHYLOGENY

Over the past decade our laboratory has had a strong interest in defining the phylogenetic status of the archaea. This has involved determining and analysing the sequences of operons of both rRNAs and RNA polymerases and it led to the discovery of the first archaeal rRNA intron. What follows is a description of some recent experiments and an appraisal of the significance of the earlier work.