A genome-scale analysis of mRNAs targeting to plant mitochondria: upstream AUGs in 5′-UTRs reduce mitochondrial association

3 years ago

A genome-scale analysis of mRNAs targeting to plant mitochondria: upstream AUGs in 5′-UTRs reduce mitochondrial association

Elodie Ubrig, Ola Srour, Anne-Marie Duchêne, Stéfanie Graindorge, Audrey Vingadassalon, Thalia Salinas, Timothée Vincent, Laurence Maréchal-Drouard, Kevin Azeredo, Valérie Cognat

Intracellular sorting of mRNAs is an essential process to regulate gene expression and protein localization. Most of mitochondrial proteins are nuclear-encoded and imported into mitochondria, through post-translational or co-translational processes. In the latter case, mRNAs are found enriched in the vicinity of mitochondria. A genome-scale analysis of mRNAs associated with mitochondria has been performed to determine plant cytosolic mRNAs targeted to the mitochondrial surface. Many messengers encoding mitochondrial proteins were found associated with mitochondria. These mRNAs correspond to particular functions and complexes such as respiration or mitoribosomes, which indicates a coordinated control of mRNAs localization within metabolic pathways. In addition, upstream AUGs in 5′-UTR, which modulate translation efficiency of downstream sequences, were found to negatively affect mRNAs association with mitochondria. A mutational approach coupled with in vivo mRNA visualization confirmed this observation. Moreover, this technic allowed the identification of 3′-UTR as another essential element for mRNA localization at the mitochondrial surface. Therefore, this work offers new insights into the mechanism, function and regulation of cytosolic mRNAs association with plant mitochondria. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1111/tpj.13749