Reference "The role of RNA editing in conservation of start codons in chloroplast genomes"

Reference ID

6481

Title

The role of RNA editing in conservation of start codons in chloroplast genomes

Source

Gene, 1994, vol. 146, pp. 177-182

Authors (5)

Neckermann-K	Zeltz-P
Igloi-G-L	Kossel-H
Maier-R-M

Abstract

Open reading frames (ORFs), encoded by the plastid genomes of tobacco,
liverwort, rice and maize were aligned with a view to studying the conservation
of translational start and stop codons created by RNA editing of homologous
genes. It became evident that most of the homologous ORFs have conserved
translation start and stop signals at the gene level. However, some of the ORFs
show differences with respect to extensions of their 3' and 5' terminal regions.
For example, the proposed N-termini of the ndhD-encoded peptides from different
plant species are very variable in length and amino-acid composition. Sequence
analysis of ndhD and the corresponding cDNA shows that editing of an ACG triplet
in tobacco, spinach and snapdragon leads to the creation of an AUG codon,
corresponding to the start codon in other species. Conservation of translational
start codons of plastome-encoded genes can, therefore, be achieved by editing of
transcripts, and the definition of plastome-encoded ORFs must take potential
editing events into consideration.