The pentatricopeptide repeat protein GEND1 is required for root development and high temperature tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana

Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2021 Sep 14;578:63-69. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2021.09.022. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTPentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins are a large family in land plants that play a role in organellular RNA processing, editing, and splicing. Here, we identify an Arabidopsis thaliana mutant, gend1-1, which exhibits a short root phenotype with reduced meristem size and cell numbers. Positional cloning of GEND1 revealed that it encodes a PPR protein, and functional analysis showed that GEND1 can bind and edit mitochondrial ccmFn-1 mRNA, causing gend1 mutants to have decreased levels of cytochrome C. GEND1 was up-regulated by high temperature conditions, to which gend1 mutants were hypersensitive. Analysis of a set of PPR mutants under high temperature showed that mutants with defects in cytochrome C had comparable temperature sensitivity to gend1. Collectively, these results suggest that cytochrome C plays an important role in root development and high temperature response in Arabidopsis.PMID:34536829 | DOI:10.1016/j.bbrc.2021.09.022
Source: Biochemical and Biophysical Research communications - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Source Type: research