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Evolution of RNA editing in kinetoplastid protozoa

Nature volume 368, pages 345–348 (1994)Cite this article

Abstract

THE editing of RNA in trypanosomatid mitochondria involves the insertion and occasional deletion of uridine residues within coding regions of maxicircle messenger RNA transcripts. The extent to which the transcripts of homologous genes undergo editing differs in different species. In some, entire genes are edited (pan-editing), whereas in others, editing is limited to the 5' termini of editing domains (5' editing)1,2. Here we investigate which type of editing is ancestral and which is derived, by analysing RNA editing in the different lineages, using a kinetoplastid phylogeny reconstructed from nuclear small subunit ribosomal RNA sequences. We conclude that the ancestral cryptogenes were pan-edited, and we hypothesize that the 5'-edited homologues were generated by several independent events from partially edited RNAs, in which case editing may be a more primitive mechanism than previously thought.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, 5-748 MacDonald Building, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    Dmitri A. Maslov, Herbert A. Avila, James A. Lake & Larry Simpson

  2. Molecular Biology Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, 5-748 MacDonald Building, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    James A. Lake

  3. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, 5-748 MacDonald Building, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90024, USA

    Larry Simpson

Authors
  1. Dmitri A. Maslov
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  2. Herbert A. Avila
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  3. James A. Lake
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  4. Larry Simpson
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Maslov, D., Avila, H., Lake, J. et al. Evolution of RNA editing in kinetoplastid protozoa. Nature 368, 345–348 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1038/368345a0

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