Moss PPR proteins are required for RNA editing and mRNA stability in mitochondria

Abstract

Pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins are involved in the posttranscriptional regulation in plant organelles. The moss Physcomitrella patens contains 104 PPR protein genes. In this study we have constructed and characterized the knockout mutants of the gene for 10 PPR proteins with DYW domain and 3 PPR proteins with NYN domains from P. patens. This analysis revealed that at least four PPR-DYW proteins were essential for site-specific RNA editing and one PPR-NYN protein for mRNA stability in the mitochondria. This protein was suggested to be involved in the formation of the branched protonemal filaments. The results of the other knockout mutants will be presented.