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. 1985 Mar;4(3):599–604. doi: 10.1002/j.1460-2075.1985.tb03672.x

Identification of an rRNA operon promoter from Zea mays chloroplasts which excludes the proximal tRNAValGAC from the primary transcript

Günter Strittmatter 1, Anna Gozdzicka-Jozefiak 1, Hans Kössel 1
PMCID: PMC554231  PMID: 15926220

Abstract

The transcriptional start site of the rRNA operon from Zea mays chloroplasts has been identified by a combination of S1 mapping and Southern hybridization with in vitro capped chloroplast RNA as radioactive probe. This is the first example in which the transcriptional start site of a choloroplast gene has been established by identification of the triphosphate-bearing RNA terminus. The start site is located at position −117 proximal to the 16S rRNA gene and is preceded by −10 and −35 sequences homologous to prokaryotic promoters. The primary transcript directed by this promoter does not include tRNAValGAC sequences which are coded further upstream between positions −302 and −231. A major processing site of the primary rRNA transcript was identified at position −30 which is embedded in a secondary structure typical for prokaryotic RNase III processing sites. Several putative processing and start sites of the tRNAValGAC transcipts have been mapped by primer extension with reverse transcriptase.

Keywords: chloroplast DNA, promoter, rRNA operon, tRNAValGAC, Zea mays

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Selected References

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