RNA editing site recognition in higher plant mitochondria

RNA editing is a process by which genomically encoded cytidines are converted to uridines in plant mitochondrial transcripts. This conversion usually changes the amino acid specified by a codon and converts an 'aberrant' residue to the evolutionarily conserved amino acid. The selection of the edited cytidine is highly specific. The cis-acting sequences for editing site recognition have been examined in ribosomal protein S12 (rps12) transcripts and in transcripts for a second copy of an internal portion of the ribosomal protein S12 (rps12b). rps12b was created by recombination at 7 and 9 nucleotide sequences that included editing sites I and IV of rps12, thus affording an opportunity to study the editing of chimeric transcripts with rearrangement very near C to U editing sites. Rearrangements downstream of editing site IV did not affect the editing of that sequence, while rearrangement upstream of editing site i ablated editing at that cytidine residue. Secondary structure predictions indicated that RNA structure did not correlate with the editing of these substrates. These results taken together with other studies in the literature suggest that RNA editing site recognition is primarily dependent on the 5' flanking RNA sequence.