A. Giese et al., CORRELATION OF NONANUCLEOTIDE MOTIFS WITH TRANSCRIPT INITIATION OF 188 RIBOSOMAL-RNA GENES IN MITOCHONDRIA OF PEA, POTATO AND ARABIDOPSIS, MGG. Molecular & general genetics, 252(4), 1996, pp. 429-436
Transcription initiation sites for the mitochondrial 18S rRNA genes in
the dicot plants Arabidopsis thaliana, potato and pea were identified
by a combination of in vitro capping, primer extension and S-1 analys
es. These promoters contain a nonanucleotide motif and an AT-rich sequ
ence similar to many mRNA and tRNA promoters in dicot mitochondria. In
Arabidopsis and potato, active promoters are located within 120 nucle
otides upstream of the 18S rRNA genes, as in Oenothera. The nucleotide
sequence in the corresponding region in pea mitochondria is well cons
erved, but is not used as promoter in this plant. Instead a novel prom
oter sequence is used that lies several hundred nucleotides upstream.
These results show that rRNAs can be transcribed from the same promote
r types as mRNAs and tRNAs in plant mitochondria. However, the sequenc
e features presently attributed to plant mitochondrial promoters - the
conserved nonanucleotide and the upstream AT-rich box - do not allow
to deduce the presence of an active promoter from genomic sequence dat
a alone.