PPR proteins network as site-specific RNA editing factors in plant organelles

RNA editing in flowering plant mitochondria targets several hundred C nucleotides mostly in mRNAs to be altered to U. Several nuclear encoded genes have been recently identified predominantly in Arabidopsis thaliana which code for proteins involved in specific RNA editing events in plastids or mitochondria. These nuclear genes code for proteins characterized by a stretch of 4-20 repeats of 34-36 amino acids each, accordingly classified as pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins. These repeats most likely participate in recognizing and binding the specific nucleotide motifs around editing sites which have been defined as essential cis-elements. All of the RNA editing PPR proteins contain at their C-termini an extension of as yet unclear function, the E domain, and some of these are further extended by another domain which terminates with the triplet DYW. While the E domain seems to be always required for their function in RNA editing, the DYW domain can sometimes be removed. At some editing sites a given PPR protein seems to be required, while at others their function can at least partially be compensated by presumably other PPR proteins. These observations suggest that the PPR proteins may act in a complex network to define and to target RNA editing sites.