Abstract
Three sequence blocks of 10–12 bp are conserved in sequence and order 5′ to putative start codons of several higher-plant mitochondrial genes. At least 25 examples were found, primarily associated with coxII, atp6, and orf25, in monocotyledons and dicotyledons. The proximal block can be 9 bp from start codons, and the three blocks generally occur within 100 bp 5′ of start codons. In three examples 5′ termini of the blocks represent recombination breakpoints, resulting in conservation of the blocks in resultant configurations. The two proximal blocks can form a secondary structure motif. The occurrence of the blocks near start codons, and conserved sequence and order, is consistent with a possible role in translation initiation or regulation.
References
Bland MM, LevingsIII CS, Matzinger DF: The tobacco mitochondrial ATPase subunit 9 gene is closely linked to an open reading frame for ribosomal protein. Mol Gen Genet 204: 8–16 (1986).
Bland MM, LevingsIII CS, Matzinger DF: The ATPase subunit 6 gene of tobacco mitochondria contains an unusual sequence. Curr Genet 12: 475–481 (1987).
Bonen L, Boer PH, Gray MW: The wheat cytochrome oxidase subunit II gene has an intron insert and three radical amino acid changes relative to maize. EMBO J 3: 2531–2536 (1984).
Bonen L, Bird S: Sequence analysis of the wheat mitochondrial atp6 gene reveals a fused upstream reading frame and markedly divergent N termini among plant ATP6 proteins. Gene 73: 47–56 (1988).
Bonen L, Bird S, Belanger L: Characterization of the wheat mitochondrial orf25 gene. Plant Mol Biol 15: 793–795 (1990).
Chao S, Sederoff R, LevingsIII CS: Nucleotide sequence and evolution of the 18S ribosomal RNA gene in maize mitochondria. Nucleic Acids Res 12: 6629–6644 (1984).
Dewey RE, LevingsIII CS, Timothy DH: Nucleotide sequence of ATPase subunit 6 gene of maize mitochondria. Plant Phys 79: 914–919 (1985).
Dewey RE, LevingsIII CS, Timothy DH: Novel recombinations in the maize mitochondrial genome produce a unique transcriptional unit in the Texas male-sterile cytoplasm. Cell 44: 439–449 (1986).
Dewey RE, Timothy DH, Levings III CS: Chimeric mitochondrial genes expressed in the C male-sterile cytoplasm of maize. Curr Genet (in press) (1991).
Grabau EA: Cytochrome oxidase subunit II gene is adjacent to an initiator methionine tRNA gene in soybean mitochondrial DNA. Curr Genet 11: 287–293 (1987).
Grabau E, Havlik M, Gesteland R: Chimeric organization of two genes for the soybean mitochondrial ATPase subunit 6. Curr Genet 13: 83–89 (1988).
Hiesel R, Brennicke A: Cytochrome oxidase subunit II gene in mitochondria of Oenothera has no intron. EMBO J 2: 2173–2178 (1983).
Hiesel R, Schobel W, Schuster W, Brennicke A: The cytochrome oxidase subunit I and subunit III genes in Oenothera mitochondria are transcribed from identical promoter sequences. EMBO J 6: 29–34 (1987).
Hiesel R, Wissinger B, Brennicke A: Cytochrome oxidase subunit II mRNA in Oenothera mitochondria are edited at 24 sites. Curr Genet 18: 371–375 (1990).
Kadowaki K, Suzuki T, Kazama S: A chimeric gene containing the 5′ portion of atp6 is associated with cytoplasmic male-sterility of rice. Mol Gen Genet 224: 10–16 (1990).
Kao T, Moon E, Wu R: Cytochrome oxidase subunit II gene of rice has an insertion sequence within the intron. Nucl Acids Res 12: 7305–7315 (1984).
Kaleikau EK, Andre CP, Walbot V: Sequence of the rice mitochondrial gene for cytochrome oxidase subunit III. Nucl Acids Res 18: 371 (1990).
Kempken F, Mullen JA, Pring DR, Tang HV: RNA editing of sorghum mitochondrial atp6 transcripts changes 15 amino acids and generates a carboxy terminus identical to yeast. Curr Genet 20: 417–422 (1991).
Kennell JC, Pring DR: Initiation and processing of atp6, T-urf13 and ORF221 transcripts from mitochondria of T cytoplasm maize. Mol Gen Genet 216: 16–24 (1989).
Macfarlane JL, Wahleithner JA, Wostenholme DR: A broad bean mitochondrial atp6 gene with an unusually simple, non-conserved 5′ region. Curr Genet 18: 87–91 (1990).
Makaroff CA, Apel IJ, Palmer JD: The atp6 coding region has been disrupted and a novel reading frame generated in the mitochondrial genome of cytoplasmic malesterile radish. J Biol Chem 264: 11706–11713 (1989).
Mann V, Ekstein I, Nissen H, Hiser C, McIntosh L, Hirschberg J: The cytochrome oxidase II gene in mitochondria of the sugar-beet Beta vulgaris L. Plant Mol Biol 17: 559–566 (1991).
McCarty DM, Hehman GL, Hauswirth WW: Nucleotide sequence of the Zea mays mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit III gene. Nucl Acids Res 16: 9873 (1988).
Moon E, Kao T, Wu R: Pea cytochrome oxidase subunit II gene has no intron and generates two mRNA transcripts with different 5′-termini. Nucl Acids Res 13: 3195–3212 (1985).
Papadopoulou B, Dekker P, Blom J, Grivell LA: A 40 kd protein binds specifically to the 5′-untranslated regions of yeast mitochondrial mRNAs. EMBO J 9: 4135–4143 (1990).
Pruitt KD, Hanson MR: Cytochrome oxidase subunit II sequences in Petunia mitochondria: two intron-containing genes and an intron-less pseudogene associated with cytoplasmic male sterility. Curr Genet 16: 281–291 (1989).
Rottmann WH, Brears T, Hodge TP, Lonsdale DM: A mitochondrial gene is lost via homologous recombination during reversion of CMS T maize to fertility. EMBO J 6: 1541–1546 (1987).
Schuster W, Brennicke A: Nucleotide sequence of the Oenothera ATPase subunit 6 gene. Nucl Acids Res 15: 9092 (1987).
Stamper SE, Dewey RE, Bland MM, LevingsIII CS: Characterization of the gene urf13-T and an unidentified reading frame, ORF25, in maize and tobacco mitochondria. Curr Genet 12: 457–463 (1987).
Suzuki T, Kazama S, Hirai A, Akihama T, Kodowaki K: The rice mitochondrial nad3 gene has an extended reading frame at its 5′ end: nucleotide sequence analysis of rice trnS, nad3, and rps12 genes. Curr Genet 20: 331–337 (1991).
Ward GC, LevingsIII CS: The protein-encoding gene T-urf13 is not edited in maize mitochondria. Plant Mol Biol 17: 1083–1088 (1991).
Young EG, Hanson MR, Dierks PM: Sequence and transcription analysis of the Petunia mitochondrial gene for the ATP synthase proteolipid subunit. Nucl Acids Res 14: 7995–8006 (1986).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pring, D.R., Mullen, J.A. & Kempken, F. Conserved sequence blocks 5′ to start codons of plant mitochondrial genes. Plant Mol Biol 19, 313–317 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00027353
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00027353