RNA editing site recognition in heterologous plant mitochondria.
RNA editing is a process that modifies the information content of mitochondrial messenger RNAs in flowering plants changing specific cytosine residues into uridine. To gain insight into editing site recognition, we used electroporation to introduce engineered wheat (Triticum aestivum) or potato (Solanum tuberosum) mitochondrial cox2 genes, and an atp9-containing chimeric gene, into non-cognate mitochondria, and observed the efficiency of editing in these contexts. Both wheat and potato mitochondria were able to express "foreign" constructs, and their products were properly spliced. Seventeen and twelve editing sites are present in the coding regions of wheat and potato cox2 transcripts, respectively. Eight are common to both plants, whereas nine are specific to wheat, and four to potato. An analogous situation is found for the atp9 mRNA coding regions from these species. We found that both mitochondria were able to recognize sites that are already present as T at the genomic level, making RNA editing unnecessary for that specific residue in the cognate organelle. Our results demonstrate that non-cognate mitochondria are able to edit residues that are not edited in their own transcripts, and support the hypothesis that the same trans-acting factor may recognize several editing sites.
Choury
David
D
Laboratoire de Réplication et Expression des Génomes Eucaryotes et Rétroviraux, UMR 5097, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Université Victor, Segalen Bordeaux II, 146, Bordeaux Cedex, France.
Araya
Alejandro
A
D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018274:Electroporation / Q000379:methods; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism*; D025261:Mitochondrial Proton-Translocating ATPases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000378:metabolism*; D017393:RNA Editing / Q000502:physiology*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D000077278:RNA, Mitochondrial; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000378:metabolism; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D011198:Solanum tuberosum / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014908:Triticum / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
C063668:ATP9 protein, Arabidopsis; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000077278:RNA, Mitochondrial; D018749:RNA, Plant; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C029305:mitochondrial messenger RNA; C117108:cytochrome C oxidase subunit II; D003576:Electron Transport Complex IV; D025261:Mitochondrial Proton-Translocating ATPases