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The Plant Cell 19:3838

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IN BRIEF

Chloroplast Intron Splicing Mechanisms

Nancy A. Eckardt

News and Reviews Editor

neckardt{at}aspb.org

Land plant chloroplast genomes contain ~20 group II introns and a single group I intron. These introns are derivatives of self-splicing ribozymes that have become dependent upon proteins for their splicing. The chloroplast RNA splicing and ribosome maturation (CRM) domain was initially recognized in three proteins that promote the splicing of chloroplast group II introns and in a bacterial protein that associates with assembling 50S ribosomal subunits. Asakura and Barkan (pages 3864–3875) investigated the functions of another member of this family, CFM2 (CRM Family Member 2). T-DNA insertions in Arabidopsis cfm2 conditioned defective seed and chlorophyll-deficient phenotypes (strong and weak alleles, respectively), with impaired splicing of specific group I and group II introns in chloroplasts. Coimmunoprecipitation assays showed that maize CFM2 is found in complexes that include these intron RNAs as well as previously described CRM splicing factors. The results show that different CRM proteins play nonredundant roles in the splicing of the same group II introns and that CRM proteins enhance the functions of three classes of catalytic RNA: group I introns, group II introns, and 23S rRNA. The authors suggest that CRM domains may be well suited to interact with catalytic RNAs in a manner that facilitates their evolutionary decay into protein-dependent enzymes.


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  		Mutations in At CFM2 condition-defective seed and stunted albino phenotypes due to impaired splicing of group I and group II introns in chloroplasts.

 
Footnotes

www.plantcell.org/cgi/doi/10.1105/tpc.108.191210


Related articles in Plant Cell:

A CRM Domain Protein Functions Dually in Group I and Group II Intron Splicing in Land Plant Chloroplasts
Yukari Asakura and Alice Barkan
Plant Cell 2007 19: 3864-3875. [Abstract] [Full Text]  




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