Transcription in mammalian and yeast mitochondria proceeds from a few well defined promoters, with processing of polycistronic transcripts producing the mature RNAs. The levels of different sequences in the steady-state RNA populations depend on differential promoter strengths, transcription attenuation and/or selective termination, and differential RNA stabilities. To gain insights into the processes governing transcription and RNA levels in plant mitochondria, a system using isolated maize mitochondria, which synthesize bona fide mitochondrial RNAs, was developed and partially characterized with respect to exogenous requirements and sensitivity to inhibitors of DNA-dependent RNA synthesis. / Although initiation and processing probably occur at reduced levels in isolated maize mitochondria, endogenous DNA templates are extensively transcribed at the same relative rates as in vivo. Isolated maize mitochondria were used to demonstrate that differential rates of both synthesis and turnover help determine the steady-state abundances of various mitochondrial RNA sequences and that mitochondria from certain lines possess an autonomously-replicating, RNA-based genetic system.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.75931 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Finnegan, Patrick Michael |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000919514, proquestno: AAINL52343, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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