Systematic study of subcellular localization of Arabidopsis PPR proteins confirms a massive targeting to organelles

Abstract

Four hundred and fifty-eight genes coding for PentatricoPeptide Repeat (PPR) proteins are annotated in the Arabidopsis thaliana genome. Over the past 10 years, numerous reports have shown that many of these proteins function in organelles to target specific transcripts and are involved in post-transcriptional regulation. Therefore, they are thought to be important players in the coordination between nuclear and organelle genome expression. Only four of these proteins have been described to be addressed outside organelles, indicating that some PPRs could function in post-transcriptional regulations of nuclear genes.