An Arabidopsis RNA lariat debranching enzyme is essential for embryogenesis.
An embryo-defective mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana was isolated that arrests development at a variety of stages, from as early as the globular stage of embryogenesis to as late as formation of an abnormal bent cotyledon stage embryo. Defects in the suspensor, a normally transient structure derived from the fertilized egg, were often associated with the arrested embryo. The lesion was within a gene encoding a protein with domains characteristic of lariat debranching enzymes, which has been named AtDBR1 (for Arabidopsis thaliana Debranching enzyme 1). Cleavage of the 2'-5'-phosphodiester bond found in excised intron lariats ("debranching") is essential for turnover of intronic sequences as well as generation of some small nucleolar RNAs. The mutation within AtDBR1 was confirmed by complementation as being responsible for the embryo-lethal phenotype, and the activity of the encoded protein in cleavage of 2'-5'-phosphodiester bonds was verified using an in vitro debranching assay.
Department of Agronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40546-0312, USA.
Huai
H
Wang
Kristine
K
Hill
Sharyn E
SE
Perry
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D005816:Genetic Complementation Test; D006868:Hydrolysis; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007438:Introns; D009154:Mutation; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry*; D012316:RNA Nucleotidyltransferases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000502:physiology*; D013696:Temperature
D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA; D012316:RNA Nucleotidyltransferases; C048135:lariat debranching enzyme