Substitutional RNA Editing in Plant Organelles

Abstract

RNA editing by cytidine (C) to uridine (U) conversions frequently occurs in land plant mitochondria and plastids. Target cytidines are specifically recognized by nuclear-encoded pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins in a sequence-specific manner. In the moss Physcomitrella patens, all PPR editing factors possess the DYW-deaminase domain at the C-terminus. Here, we describe methods for the direct sequencing of cDNA to detect RNA editing events and the RNA electrophoresis mobility shift assay (REMSA) to analyze the specific binding of PPR editing factors to their target RNA.

Keywords: C-to-U editing; Mitochondria; Pentatricopeptide repeat; Physcomitrella patens; Plastid; RNA-protein interaction.