RNA editing in ribosome-less plastids of iojap maize

In maize chloroplasts, 28 C-to-U editing events have been identified in the transcripts of 14 different genes. The iojap mutant of maize, which lacks chloroplast ribosomes, affords the opportunity to examine whether any chloroplast translation products are required for the editing of any of the 28 sites. Furthermore, the mode of action of the IOJAP protein itself is unknown, so we explored the possibility that homozygous ij1/ ij1 plants are defective in RNA editing. Current knowledge of RNA editing in chloroplasts indicates the existence of site-specific factors responsible for recognizing C targets of editing, but the factors have not yet been identified and their encoding genes are unknown. Our results indicate that all 28 editing sites can be recognized and processed in ribosome-less plastids. Transcripts of rpoB are more abundant and more highly edited in iojap mutants. The editing site in rpl2, which creates the mRNA start codon, is the most severely affected in homozygous ij/ ij plants, but nevertheless exhibits at least 10% editing in all mutant lines. Reduced editing of rpl2 may be an indirect effect of reduced splicing, rather than a defect caused by the iojap mutation. We conclude that neither the IOJAP protein nor chloroplast translation products are required for editing any of the 28 C targets of editing in maize chloroplast RNAs.