A SMALL REPEATED SEQUENCE CONTAINS THE TRANSCRIPTION INITIATION SITESFOR BOTH TRNFM AND RRN26 IN RICE MITOCHONDRIA

The 76 bp sequence found in the upstream region of a gene for 26S rRNA (rrn26) is duplicated in the upstream region of a gene for initiator methionine tRNA (trnfM) in the mitochondrial genome of rice. An in vit ro capping/ribonuclease protection assay and primer extension analysis demonstrated that the transcription of trnfM and of rrn226, which are at least 190 kb from one another in the rice mitochondrial genome, st arts from these same sequences in the upstream regions of the respecti ve genes. This result indicates that the short sequence that is duplic ated in the upstream regions of trnfM and rrn26 in rice mtDNA is recog nized as the promoter of each respective gene.