Assigning DYW‐type PPR proteins to RNA editing sites in the funariid mosses Physcomitrella patens and Funaria hygrometrica

Summary The plant‐specific pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins with variable PPR repeat lengths (PLS‐type) and protein extensions up to the carboxyterminal DYW domain have received attention as specific recognition factors for the C‐to‐U type of RNA editing events in plant organelles. Here, we report a DYW‐protein knockout in the model plant Physcomitrella patens specifically affecting mitochondrial RNA editing positions cox1eU755SL and rps14eU137SL. Assignment of DYW proteins and RNA editing sites might best be corroborated by data from a taxon with a slightly different, yet similarly manageable low number of editing sites and DYW proteins. To this end we investigated the mitochondrial editing status of the related funariid moss Funaria hygrometrica. We find that: (i) Funaria lacks three mitochondrial RNA editing positions present in Physcomitrella, (ii) that F. hygrometrica cDNA sequence data identify nine DYW proteins as clear orthologues of their P. patens counterparts, and (iii) that the ‘missing’ 10th DYW protein in F. hygrometrica is responsible for two mitochondrial editing sites in P. patens lacking in F. hygrometrica (nad3eU230SL, nad4eU272SL). Interestingly, the third site of RNA editing missing in F. hygrometrica (rps14eU137SL) is addressed by the DYW protein characterized here and the presence of its orthologue in F. hygrometrica is explained through its simultaneous action on site cox1eU755SL conserved in both mosses.