Hybridization of maize chloroplast DNA with transfer ribonucleic acids.

Hybridization of [125I] tRNA to chloroplast DNA indicates that 0.60-0.75% of maize chloroplast DNA contains sequences complementary to maize tRNA, corresponding to 20-26 tRNA cistrons. Green maize seedlings contain about twice the amount of chloroplast DNA-hybridizable tRNA as etiolated maize seedings. tRNA from green or etiolated maize seedlings was also aminoacylated in vitro with 21 labeled amino acids and then incubated with filters containing chloroplast DNA, tRNAs charging a total of at least 16 different amino acids hybridized with chloroplast DNA. Most of these plastid aminoacyl-tRNAs were present in higher concentrations in tRNA isolated from green maize seedlings, although there were several exceptions. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that a complete or nearly complete set or tRNAs can be transcribed from chloroplast DNA.