VISITING SPEAKER:
  RNA editing and DYW-type PPR proteins as specificity factors in mitochondria of the moss Physcomitrella patens and the protist Naegleria gruberi
  - Numerous cytidines are converted into uridines by site-specific RNA editing of mitochondrial and chloroplast transcripts, which corrects genetic information in land plants.
		
Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:00 - G.33 Lecture Theatre Bayliss Bldg., UWA
		
Dr Mareike Rudinger, University Bonn, Germany
In flowering plants, mitochondrial transcriptomes contain some 300–500
RNA editing sites and chloroplast transcriptomes approximately 30
editing sites. In lycophytes, RNA editing is particularly abundant with
more than 2100 editing sites in mitochondrial mRNAs and rRNAs of the
spikemoss Selaginella moellendorffii. In contrast, only 11 sites are
identified in mitochondria of the model plant Physcomitrella patens,
making this moss an attractive model for functional studies.
Pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins with unique carboxyterminal
extensions (E/DYW) encoded by extended nuclear gene families in plants
have previously been characterized as specificity factors recognizing
editing sites. PPR proteins with the DYW domain in particular were shown
to perfectly correlate with the presence of RNA editing in evolution.
Our DYW-PPR gene knockout studies in Physcomitrella will contribute to
identify the full set of nuclear specificity factors addressing all
editing sites in a plant mitochondrial transcriptome. Most surprisingly,
we recently also identified DYW-type PPR proteins in the heterolobosean
protist Naegleria gruberi. Interestingly, we were now able to identify
C-to-U editing in the mitochondrial transcriptome of this protist, which
is phylogenetically separated from the plant lineage by more than 1
billion years of evolution.
		
For more information:
  Jennifer Gillett
  jennifer.gillett@uwa.edu.au

Starts       : Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:00
Ends         : Thu, 16 Aug 2012 16:45
		
Last Updated : Fri, 13 Jul 2012 16:49