Abstract
In higher plant organelles, specific C residues on transcripts are converted to U by RNA editing. Tobacco chloroplast genome has 38 C-to-U RNA editing sites, each of which are thought to be specifically recognized by respective trans-acting factors. However, there has been a dispute about the stringency of cis-trans recognition of the RNA editing factors. In this study, we examined whether multiple editing sites are bound by the same trans-acting factors, with the aid of an in vitro RNA editing system and UV cross-linking. As a result, we found that three RNA editing sites in the tobacco chloroplast genome, ndhF-1, ndhB-9 and rpoB-3 are bound by the same trans-factor of 95 kD (p95). This is the first clear demonstration that a trans-factor for plant organellar RNA editing specifically recognizes multiple editing sites.
