Root Primordium Defective 1 Encodes an Essential PORR Protein Required for the Splicing of Mitochondria-Encoded Group II Introns and for Respiratory Complex i Biogenesis

Rana Edris, Laure D. Sultan, Corinne Best, Ron Mizrahi, Ofir Weinstein, Stav Chen, Nina A. Kamennaya, Nir Keren, Hagit Zer, Hongliang Zhu, Oren Ostersetzer-Biran*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cellular respiration involves complex organellar metabolic activities that are pivotal for plant growth and development. Mitochondria contain their own genetic system (mitogenome, mtDNA), which encodes key elements of the respiratory machinery. Plant mtDNAs are notably larger than their counterparts in Animalia, with complex genome organization and gene expression characteristics. The maturation of the plant mitochondrial transcripts involves extensive RNA editing, trimming and splicing events. These essential processing steps rely on the activities of numerous nuclear-encoded cofactors, which may also play key regulatory roles in mitochondrial biogenesis and function and hence in plant physiology. Proteins that harbor the plant organelle RNA recognition (PORR) domain are represented in a small gene family in plants. Several PORR members, including WTF1, WTF9 and LEFKOTHEA, are known to act in the splicing of organellar group II introns in angiosperms. The AT4G33495 gene locus encodes an essential PORR protein in Arabidopsis, termed ROOT PRIMORDIUM DEFECTIVE 1 (RPD1). A null mutation of At.RPD1 causes arrest in early embryogenesis, while the missense mutant lines, rpd1.1 and rpd1.2, exhibit a strong impairment in root development and retarded growth phenotypes, especially under high-Temperature conditions. Here, we further show that RPD1 functions in the splicing of introns that reside in the coding regions of various complex I (CI) subunits (i.e. nad2, nad4, nad5 and nad7), as well as in the maturation of the ribosomal rps3 pre-RNA in Arabidopsis mitochondria. The altered growth and developmental phenotypes and modified respiration activities are tightly correlated with respiratory chain CI defects in rpd1 mutants.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)602-617
Number of pages16
JournalPlant and Cell Physiology
Volume65
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Apr 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Plant Physiologists. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Complex I
  • Group II introns
  • Mitochondria
  • Plants
  • RNA metabolism
  • ROOT PRIMORDIUM DEFECTIVE 1 (RPD1)
  • Splicing

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