Plant mitochondrial PORR proteins facilitate group II intron splicing by binding to distinct regions within their target introns.

ABSTRACT: Ribozymic introns are widely distributed in eubacteria and organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts. In plants, organellar introns often exhibit degenerate RNA structures, lacking essential elements for self-splicing and mobility. Consequently, their splicing relies heavily on host-encoded proteins. The plant organellar RNA recognition (PORR) domain, a recently identified RNA-binding motif, defines a small, plant-specific protein family. In this study, we characterized five novel mitochondria-targeted PORR genes. Functional analyses revealed that all five PORRs play a role in mitochondrial group II intron splicing. While one PORR protein was found necessary for the splicing of a single intron, the other four facilitate the splicing of multiple introns. Splicing defects in each porr

SUBMITTER: Wang C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12359027 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature