Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 106, Issue 11, Pages 4537-4542Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0812503106
Keywords
DUF860; mitochondria; plastid
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [DBI-0421799, MCB-0744960, DBI-0211935]
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service [2008-35301-19038]
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience [0744960] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Comparative genomics has provided evidence for numerous conserved protein domains whose functions remain unknown. We identified a protein harboring domain of unknown function 860 (DUF860) as a component of group II intron ribonucleoprotein particles in maize chloroplasts. This protein, assigned the name WTF1 (what's this factor?), coimmunoprecipitates from chloroplast extract with group II intron RNAs, is required for the splicing of the introns with which it associates, and promotes splicing in the context of a heterodimer with the RNase III-domain protein RNC1. Both WTF1 and its resident DUF860 bind RNA in vitro, demonstrating that DUF860 is a previously unrecognized RNA-binding domain. DUF860 is found only in plants, where it is represented in a protein family comprising 14 orthologous groups in angiosperms. Most members of the DUF860 family are predicted to localize to chloroplasts or mitochondria, suggesting that proteins with this domain have multiple roles in RNA metabolism in both organelles. These findings add to emerging evidence that the coevolution of nuclear and organellar genomes spurred the evolution of diverse noncanonical RNA-binding motifs that perform organelle-specific functions.
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