Title: Effect of U-to-C RNA editing on plant stability

Biography:

Dr. Ruchika is highly motivated scientist from India. She has obtained her bachelor and master’s degree from Delhi University, India. Thereafter she moved to Japan and received doctoral degree in molecular biology from Japan advanced institute of science and technology, JAIST, Japan. For this, she was also affiliated with the Excellent student Award from the president of JAIST. Now, Ruchika has recruited as Assistant professor at Kyushu university, Fukuoka, Japan. She is experienced in RNA editing Techniques and relate molecular biology tools. Currently, she is working for designing an artificial PPRs to target Non-coding RNAs for the clinical application, especially the degenerative diseases or cancers.

Abstract

Cytidine-to-uridine (C-to-U) RNA editing has been generally observed in land plants; however, reverse (U-to-C) RNA editing is a rare phenomenon. In this study, we investigated the U-to-C RNA editing-related genes in Arabidopsis tissues and the effects on mRNA stability. A previous study showed the extensive occurrence of U-to-C RNA editing in 12-day and 20-dayold Arabidopsis seedlings. Here, we have demonstrated the effects of this “reverse” RNA editing on the mRNA stability for all seven edited genes. We also identified U-to-C RNA editing in the nuclear PPR gene (AT2G19280) in 12-day-old seedlings of Arabidopsis thaliana. The U-to-C RNA editing sites were found in the untranslated region (3’ UTR) of the mature mRNA and may affect its secondary structure. We also examined the correlation between U-to-C RNA editing-related genes and their mRNA abundance. Furthermore, we investigated the effects of U-to-C RNA editing in Arabidopsis using the transcription inhibitor actinomycin D (Act D). The addition of Act D to the cell suspension culture of transgenic Arabidopsis generated by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation showed that single nucleotide base conversion adversely affected the mRNA secondary structure and plant stability.