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Mol Cell Biol, August 1998, p. 4605-4611, Vol. 18, No. 8
Department of Biology, Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel,1
and
Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Cornell
University, Ithaca, New York 148532
Received 27 January 1998/Returned for modification 12 March
1998/Accepted 7 May 1998
3'-end processing of nucleus-encoded mRNAs includes the
addition of a poly(A) tail that is important for translation
initiation. Since the vast majority of chloroplast mRNAs acquire
their 3' termini by processing yet are not polyadenylated, we asked
whether 3' end maturation plays a role in chloroplast translation. A
general characteristic of the 3' untranslated regions of chloroplast
mRNAs is an inverted repeat (IR) sequence that can fold into a
stem-loop structure. These stem-loops and their flanking sequences
serve as RNA 3'-end formation signals. Deletion of the
Chlamydomonas chloroplast atpB 3' IR in strain
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
3'-Processed mRNA Is Preferentially Translated
in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Chloroplasts

26 results in reduced accumulation of atpB transcripts
and the chloroplast ATPase
-subunit, leading to weakly
photosynthetic growth. Of the residual
atpB mRNA in
26, approximately 1% accumulates as a
discrete RNA of wild-type size, while the remainder is
heterogeneous in length due to the lack of normal 3' end maturation. In
this work, we have analyzed whether these unprocessed atpB
transcripts are actively translated in vivo. We found that only the
minority population of discrete transcripts of wild-type size is
associated with polysomes and thus accounts for the ATPase
-subunit
which accumulates in
26. Analysis of chloroplast rbcL
mRNA revealed that transcripts extending beyond the mature 3' end
were not polysome associated. These results suggest that 3'-end
processing of chloroplast mRNA is required for or strongly
stimulates its translation.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dept. of
Biology, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
Phone: 972-4-8293171. Fax: 972-4-8225153. E-mail:
gadis{at}tx.technion.ac.il.
This paper is dedicated to Robert Drager, who passed away on 30 March 1998.
Present address: The Israeli Institute for Biological Research,
P.O. Box 19, Nes-Ziona, Israel 70450.
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