The plant mitochondrial mat-r gene/nad1 gene complex

We have completed sequencing segments of the maize mitochondrial (mt) DNA that contains all five of the exons (A-E) of the gene (nad1) for subunit I of the respiratory chain NADH dehydrogenase. Analysis of these sequences indicates that exons B and C are joined by a continuous group II intron, but the remaining exons are associated with partial group II introns and are encoded at widely separated locations in the maize mtDNA molecule. We have shown that mature transcripts of the maize nad1 gene contain 23 edited nucleotides, and that transcripts of maize and soybean mat-r genes contain 15 and 14 edits, respectively. The majority of edits in nad1 transcripts result in amino acid replacements that increase similarity between the maize NAD1 protein and NAD1 proteins of other plant species and of animal species. We found that the intron between exons b and c is not edited. From data obtained using PCR and sequencing we have shown that transcripts containing all possible exon combinations exist in maize mitochondria