Dynamic landscape of mitochondrial Cytidine-to-Uridine RNA editing in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) shows its tissue specificity

• Published in: Plant cell, tissue and organ culture Vol. 148; no. 2; pp. 363 - 376
• Main Authors: Fang, Jing, Jiang, Xiaohan, Wang, Tengfei, Deng, Zhiyu, Zhang, Aidi, Zhang, Xiujun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.02.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Editing; flowers; Gene expression; Genes; Heterogeneity; Landscape preservation; landscapes; leaves; Life Sciences; Mitochondria; mitochondrial RNA; Nicotiana tabacum; Nucleotides; organ culture; Original Article; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant Pathology; Plant Physiology; Plant Sciences; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA editing; RNA modification; sequence analysis; Tissues; Tobacco; Uridine; Tissue specificity; RNA editing; Mitochondria; PPR
• ISSN: 0167-6857; 1573-5044
• DOI: 10.1007/s11240-021-02194-0

RNA editing is a prevalent nucleotide modification at the RNA level in higher plants. However, little is known about the dynamic distribution of RNA editing among tissues. In this study, we explored the tissue specificity of mitochondrial RNA editing in tobacco ( Nicotiana tabacum ) based on publicly available RNA-seq data from four tobacco tissues: root, stem, leaf, and flower. As a result, 473 RNA editing sites involved in 60 mitochondrial genes were identified. The results showed an uneven distribution of editing sites among tobacco tissues, a total of 106 sites and 11 genes were identified as tissue-specific editing in the four tissues, and a total of 11 sites located in six genes were detected differentially edited statistically ( p -value < 0.01). The expression of RNA edited genes and RNA editing factors was analyzed, and we observed that most tissue-specific edited genes were expressed at a low level. There were about ~  20 RNA editing factors that were differentially expressed between different tissues, indicating that the heterogeneity of RNA editing in different tissues might result from the expression regulation of RNA editing factors. Our analyses provide insights into the understanding of landscape, regulation, and function of RNA editing events in higher plants. Key message Dynamic landscape of conserved editing sites revealed the tissue specificity of mitochondrial RNA editing in tobacco.