Alternative promoters are used for genes within maize chloroplast polycistronic transcription units

Many chloroplast genes are co-transcribed in polycistronic transcription units that give rise to numerous overlapping RNAs, but the significance of this pattern of transcript accumulation is not understood. An analysis of the transcripts of the adjacent and divergent maize psbE-psbF-psbL-ORF40 and ORF31-petE-ORF42 gene clusters indicates that transcription initiation at alternative promoters contributes to the generation of overlapping RNAs for both clusters. Furthermore, developmentally varying transcript ratios for the ORF31-petE-ORF42 gene cluster are determined at least in part by selective promoter usage. During light-induced plastid maturation, increased levels of primarily monocistronic petE transcripts accumulate from a promoter upstream of the internal petE gene. Dark-predominant and non-light-responsive bi- and tricistronic transcripts result from transcription initiation upstream of ORF31, the proximal gene of the cluster. In addition to the transcriptional overlap within gene clusters, divergent transcription units for the two gene clusters overlap and reciprocal antisense RNAs accumulate. The organization of the transcription units in this region raises the possibility of promoter interdependence or other functional interaction between transcription units.