RNA editing site recognition in heterologous plant mitochondria

• Published in: Current genetics Vol. 50; no. 6; pp. 405 - 416
• Main Authors: Choury, David, Araya, Alejandro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Berlin/Heidelberg : Springer-Verlag 01.12.2006; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Arabidopsis Proteins; Arabidopsis Proteins - genetics; Arabidopsis Proteins - metabolism; Base Sequence; Binding Sites; Electron Transport Complex IV; Electron Transport Complex IV - genetics; Electron Transport Complex IV - metabolism; Electroporation; Electroporation - methods; Flowering plants; Life Sciences; Microbiology and Parasitology; Mitochondria; Mitochondria - metabolism; Mitochondrial Proton-Translocating ATPases; Mitochondrial Proton-Translocating ATPases - genetics; Mitochondrial Proton-Translocating ATPases - metabolism; Molecular Sequence Data; Open Reading Frames; Plant mitochondria; Plants, Genetically Modified; Plants, Genetically Modified - metabolism; Potatoes; Proteins; Recombinant Fusion Proteins; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - genetics; Recombinant Fusion Proteins - metabolism; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA Editing; RNA Editing - physiology; RNA, Messenger; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; RNA, Plant; RNA, Plant - metabolism; RNA-Binding Proteins; RNA-Binding Proteins - metabolism; Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; Solanum tuberosum; Solanum tuberosum - genetics; Solanum tuberosum - metabolism; Triticum; Triticum - genetics; Triticum - metabolism; Triticum aestivum; Vegetables; Wheat
• ISSN: 0172-8083; 1432-0983
• DOI: 10.1007/s00294-006-0100-3

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.