title: A pentatricopeptide repeat protein is a site recognition factor in chloroplast RNA editing.
abstract: In higher plants, RNA editing is a post-transcriptional process that converts C to U in organelle mRNAs. We have previously shown that an Arabidopsis thaliana crr4 mutant is defective with respect to RNA editing for creating the translational initial codon of the plastid ndhD gene (the ndhD-1 site). CRR4 contains 11 pentatricopeptide repeat motifs but does not contain any domains that are likely to be involved in the editing activity. The green fluorescent protein fused to the putative transit peptide of CRR4 targeted the plastid. The recombinant CRR4 expressed in Escherichia coli specifically bound to the 25 nucleotides of the upstream and the 10 nucleotides of the downstream sequences surrounding the editing site of ndhD-1. The target C nucleotide of this editing is not essential for the binding of CRR4. Taken together with the genetic evidence, we conclude that the pentatricopeptide repeat protein CRR4 is a sequence-specific RNA-binding protein that acts as a site recognition factor in plastid RNA editing.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Agriculture, Kyushu University, 6-10-1 Hakozaki, Higashiku, Fukuoka 812-8581, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Okuda
authors.forename: Takahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Mamoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sugita
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: Toshiharu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shikanai
mesh_terms: D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001483:Base Sequence; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D018744:DNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D017343:Genes, Plant; D008954:Models, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009247:NADH, NADPH Oxidoreductases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017393:RNA Editing; D018747:RNA, Chloroplast / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020449:Repetitive Sequences, Amino Acid
chemical_list: D029681:Arabidopsis Proteins; C583236:CRR4 protein, Arabidopsis; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D018744:DNA, Plant; D018747:RNA, Chloroplast; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D009247:NADH, NADPH Oxidoreductases