The Zea mays mitochondrial gene coding cytochrome oxidase subunit II has an intervening sequence and does not contain TGA codons

Abstract

Cross hybridization between maize mitochondrial DNA fragments and a specific yeast mitochondrial DNA probe from the oxi 1 gene has been used to identify and isolate the maize mitochondrial gene coding cytochrome oxidase subunit II, mox 1. The DNA sequence reveals two coding regions separated from each other by a single centrally located intervening sequence. Hybridization of mox 1 DNA probes to mitochondrial RNA from plants shows that te gene is transcribed and indicates that several transcripts are spliced. TGA codons, which code Trp in the mitochondria of all species examined to date, do not occur in this gene. However, alignment of the mox 1 gene sequence with the amino acid sequences of subunit II from other organisms strongly suggests that codon CGG (normally Arg) codes for Trp in maize mitochondria, in addition to the standard Trp codon TGG.