Laforest MJ, Delage L, Marechal-Drouard L

Institut de Biologie Moleculaire des Plantes, UPR 2357 CNRS, Universite Louis Pasteur, 12 rue du General Zimmer, 67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France.

Import of tRNAs into plant mitochondria appears to be highly specific. We recently showed that the anticodon and the D-domain sequences are essential determinants for tRNAVal import into tobacco cell mitochondria. To determine the minimal set of elements required to direct import of a cytosol-specific tRNA species, tobacco cells were transformed with an Arabidopsis thaliana intron-containing tRNAMet-e gene carrying the D-domain and the anticodon of a valine tRNA. Although well expressed and processed into tobacco cells, this mutated tRNA was shown to remain in the cytosol. Furthermore, a mutant tRNAVal carrying the T-domain of the tRNAMet-e, although still efficiently recognized by the valyl-tRNA synthetase, is not imported into mitochondria. Altogether these results suggest that mutations affecting the core of a tRNA molecule also alter its import ability into plant mitochondria.

Mesh Terms:
Arabidopsis, Base Sequence, Cell Line, Gene Expression Regulation, Plant, Introns, Kinetics, Mitochondria, Molecular Sequence Data, Mutation, Nucleic Acid Conformation, Plants, Genetically Modified, RNA Splice Sites, RNA Transport, RNA, Transfer, Amino Acyl, RNA, Transfer, Met, Tobacco, Transcription, Genetic, Transfer RNA Aminoacylation

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173869

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