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Regulatory sequences of the Arabidopsis thaliana Rps19, a nuclear gene encoding mitochondrial ribosomal protein subunit, extend into the upstream gene

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Abstract

Genes encoding subunits of the mitochondrial ribosomal protein complex are distributed between the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. In Arabidopsis thaliana only seven out of the nearly 70 genes coding for mitochondrial ribosomal subunit proteins are present in the mitochondrial genome. Nevertheless, these genes are co-ordinately expressed. Here, we present the first report of characterization of promoter of a plant mitochondrial ribosomal protein gene AtRps19 (At5g47320), a single copy nuclear gene in A. thaliana. Analysis of transgenic A. thaliana plants carrying seven different AtRps19 upstream fragments linked to the uidA reporter gene revealed that the 879 bp fragment containing the 5′ UTR and the intergenic region is capable of driving gene expression in most of the vegetative tissues. However, inclusion of 447 bp of the upstream gene sequences was essential for obtaining full expression in all tissues including anthers and pollen. Thus, we provide the first experimental proof of overlapping genes in plants. qRT-PCR analysis showed that uidA and native AtRps19 transcript levels were comparable in plants carrying the D4 (−676/+650) construct, indicating that the 1326 bp D4 fragment represents the native promoter of the AtRps19 gene. Comparison of AtRps19 promoter with the widely used CaMV35S promoter showed that AtRps19 promoter is capable of driving gene expression in all tissues including anthers and pollen but was less efficient than the CaMV35S promoter.

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Abbreviations

Rps19 :

Gene for ribosomal protein S19 (nucleus encoded)

MRPs:

Mitochondrial ribosomal proteins

Mt:

Mitochondria(l)

GUS:

β-Glucuronidase

UTR:

Untranslated region

Bp:

Base pair(s)

TSS:

Transcription start site

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Acknowledgements

Suman Lata received CSIR-JRF from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi, and Aashish Ranjan and Neetu Singh Kushwah received ICAR-JRF from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. We thank National Phytotron Facility, IARI, New Delhi, for providing space to grow Arabidopsis plants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR–National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, 110012, India

    Suman Lata, Aashish Ranjan, Neetu Singh Kushwah, Pankaj Kumar, Seema Dargan, Ramamurthy Srinivasan & Shripad Ramachandra Bhat

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  1. Suman Lata
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  2. Aashish Ranjan
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  3. Neetu Singh Kushwah
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Correspondence to Shripad Ramachandra Bhat.

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Lata, S., Ranjan, A., Kushwah, N.S. et al. Regulatory sequences of the Arabidopsis thaliana Rps19, a nuclear gene encoding mitochondrial ribosomal protein subunit, extend into the upstream gene. J. Plant Biochem. Biotechnol. 26, 302–309 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13562-016-0392-4

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