RNA Editing in Plant Mitochondria and Plastids
It has been shown in previous studies that the only types of RNA editing seen in the plants’ mitochondria and plastids are conversion of C to U and U to C (very rare) . RNA-editing sites are found mainly in the coding regions of mRNA, introns, and other non-translated regions. In fact, RNA editing can restore the functionality of tRNA molecules. The editing sites are found primarily upstream of mitochondrial or plastid RNAs. The exact mechanism is unknown, but previous studies have speculated the involvement of gRNA and the editosome complex. The reason behind that specific idea arose from the fact that there are too many editing sites that needed to be changed in those organelles for a deaminase.
RNA editing is essential for the normal functioning of the plant’s translation and respiration activity. Editing can restore the essential base-pairing sequences of tRNAs, restoring functionality. It has also been linked to the production of RNA-edited proteins that are incorporated into the polypeptide complexes of the respiration pathway. Therefore, it is highly probable that polypeptides synthesized from unedited RNAs would not function properly and hinder the activity of both mitochondria and plastids.
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