RNA editing in plants: A comprehensive survey of bioinformatics tools and databases

Abstract

RNA editing is a widespread epitranscriptomic mechanism by which primary RNAs are specifically modified through insertions/deletions or nucleotide substitutions. In plants, RNA editing occurs in organelles (plastids and mitochondria), involves the cytosine to uridine modification (rarely uridine to cytosine) within protein-coding and non-protein-coding regions of RNAs and affects organelle biogenesis, adaptation to environmental changes and signal transduction. High-throughput sequencing technologies have dramatically improved the detection of RNA editing sites at genomic scale. Consequently, different bioinformatics resources have been released to discovery and/or collect novel events. Here, we review and describe the state-of-the-art bioinformatics tools devoted to the characterization of RNA editing in plant organelles with the aim to improve our knowledge about this fascinating but yet under investigated process.

Keywords: C-To-U change; Chloroplast; Database; Mitochondrion; Organelle; RNA editing.