RNA turnover and the control of mitochondrial gene expression

Recent evidence suggests that RNA turnover in yeast mitochondria is important, not only to regulate RNA abundance, but also to facilitate group I intron splicing and suppress the potentially toxic effect of high levels of excised group I intron RNAs. Protein-assisted splicing of group I introns requires that splicing factors are 'actively' recycled, because of their tight binding to the intron RNA. The putative NTP-dependent RNA helicase Suv3p might promote this recycling and, at the same time, suppress intron overaccumulation because of the functional association of this protein with mtEXO, a novel 3'-5' exoribonuclease that can degrade excised group I intron RNAs.