Plant Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Großhaderner Street 2-4, 82152 Planegg-Martinsried, Germany.
Photosynthesis Research Center, Key Laboratory of Photobiology, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
Genes (Basel). 2021 Jul 24;12(8):1121. doi: 10.3390/genes12081121.
Modifications in nucleic acids are present in all three domains of life. More than 170 distinct chemical modifications have been reported in cellular RNAs to date. Collectively termed as epitranscriptome, these RNA modifications are often dynamic and involve distinct regulatory proteins that install, remove, and interpret these marks in a site-specific manner. Covalent nucleotide modifications-such as methylations at diverse positions in the bases, polyuridylation, and pseudouridylation and many others impact various events in the lifecycle of an RNA such as folding, localization, processing, stability, ribosome assembly, and translational processes and are thus crucial regulators of the RNA metabolism. In plants, the nuclear/cytoplasmic epitranscriptome plays important roles in a wide range of biological processes, such as organ development, viral infection, and physiological means. Notably, recent transcriptome-wide analyses have also revealed novel dynamic modifications not only in plant nuclear/cytoplasmic RNAs related to photosynthesis but especially in chloroplast mRNAs, suggesting important and hitherto undefined regulatory steps in plastid functions and gene expression. Here we report on the latest findings of known plastid RNA modifications and highlight their relevance for the post-transcriptional regulation of chloroplast gene expression and their role in controlling plant development, stress reactions, and acclimation processes.
核酸中的修饰存在于所有三个生命领域中。迄今为止，在细胞 RNA 中已经报道了超过 170 种不同的化学修饰。这些 RNA 修饰统称为转录后修饰组，它们通常是动态的，并涉及到特定的调节蛋白，这些调节蛋白以特定的方式安装、去除和解释这些标记。核苷酸的共价修饰，如碱基上不同位置的甲基化、多聚尿苷酸化和假尿苷酸化以及许多其他修饰，影响 RNA 生命周期中的各种事件，如折叠、定位、加工、稳定性、核糖体组装和翻译过程，因此是 RNA 代谢的重要调节剂。在植物中，核/细胞质转录后修饰组在广泛的生物学过程中发挥着重要作用，如器官发育、病毒感染和生理过程。值得注意的是，最近的转录组全谱分析还揭示了不仅与光合作用有关的植物核/细胞质 RNA 中存在新的动态修饰，而且在叶绿体 mRNAs 中也存在新的动态修饰，这表明在质体功能和基因表达中存在重要的、迄今为止尚未定义的调节步骤。本文报告了已知的质体 RNA 修饰的最新发现，并强调了它们对叶绿体基因表达的转录后调控以及它们在控制植物发育、应激反应和适应过程中的作用。
