The SUBcellular location database for Arabidopsis proteins (SUBA4, http://suba.live) is a comprehensive collection of manually curated published data sets of large-scale subcellular proteomics, fluorescent protein visualization, protein-protein interaction (PPI) as well as subcellular targeting calls from 22 prediction programs. SUBA4 contains an additional 35 568 localizations totalling more than 60 000 experimental protein location claims as well as 37 new suborganellar localization categories. The experimental PPI data has been expanded to 26 327 PPI pairs including 856 PPI localizations from experimental fluorescent visualizations. The new SUBA4 user interface enables users to choose quickly from the filter categories: ‘subcellular location’, ‘protein properties’, ‘protein–protein interaction’ and ‘affiliations’ to build complex queries. This allows substantial expansion of search parameters into 80 annotation types comprising 1 150 204 new annotations to study metadata associated with subcellular localization. The ‘BLAST’ tab contains a sequence alignment tool to enable a sequence fragment from any species to find the closest match in Arabidopsis and retrieve data on subcellular location. Using the location consensus SUBAcon, the SUBA4 toolbox delivers three novel data services allowing interactive analysis of user data to provide relative compartmental protein abundances and proximity relationship analysis of PPI and coexpression partners from a submitted list of Arabidopsis gene identifiers.

Respiratory oxidative phosphorylation is a cornerstone of cellular metabolism in aerobic multicellular organisms. The efficiency of this process is generally assumed to be maximized, but the presence of dynamically regulated nonphosphorylating bypasses implies that plants can alter phosphorylation efficiency and can benefit from lowered energy generation during respiration under certain conditions. We characterized an Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutant, ndufs4 (for NADH dehydrogenase [ubiquinone] fragment S subunit 4), lacking complex I of the respiratory chain, which has constitutively lowered phosphorylation efficiency. Through analysis of the changes to mitochondrial function as well as whole cell transcripts and metabolites, we provide insights into how cellular metabolism flexibly adapts to reduced phosphorylation efficiency and why this state may benefit the plant by providing moderate stress tolerance. We show that removal of the single protein subunit NDUFS4 prevents assembly of complex I and removes its function from mitochondria without pleiotropic effects on other respiratory components. However, the lack of complex I promotes broad changes in the nuclear transcriptome governing growth and photosynthetic function. We observed increases in organic acid and amino acid pools in the mutant, especially at night, concomitant with alteration of the adenylate content. While germination is delayed, this can be rescued by application of gibberellic acid, and root growth assays of seedlings show enhanced tolerance to cold, mild salt, and osmotic stress. We discuss these observations in the light of recent data on the knockout of nonphosphorylating respiratory bypass enzymes that show opposite changes in metabolites and stress sensitivity. Our data suggest that the absence of complex I alters the adenylate control of cellular metabolism.

The subcellular location database for Arabidopsis proteins (SUBA3, http://suba.plantenergy.uwa.edu.au) combines manual literature curation of large-scale subcellular proteomics, fluorescent protein visualization and protein–protein interaction (PPI) datasets with subcellular targeting calls from 22 prediction programs. More than 14 500 new experimental locations have been added since its first release in 2007. Overall, nearly 650 000 new calls of subcellular location for 35 388 non-redundant Arabidopsis proteins are included (almost six times the information in the previous SUBA version). A re-designed interface makes the SUBA3 site more intuitive and easier to use than earlier versions and provides powerful options to search for PPIs within the context of cell compartmentation. SUBA3 also includes detailed localization information for reference organelle datasets and incorporates green fluorescent protein (GFP) images for many proteins. To determine as objectively as possible where a particular protein is located, we have developed SUBAcon, a Bayesian approach that incorporates experimental localization and targeting prediction data to best estimate a protein’s location in the cell. The probabilities of subcellular location for each protein are provided and displayed as a pictographic heat map of a plant cell in SUBA3.

RNA editing in higher plant organelles results in the conversion of specific cytidine residues to uridine residues in RNA. The recognition of a specific target C site by the editing machinery involves trans-acting factors that bind to the RNA upstream of the C to be edited. In the last few years, analysis of mutants affected in chloroplast biogenesis has identified several pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) proteins from the PLS subfamily that are essential for the editing of particular RNA transcripts. We selected other genes from the same subfamily and used a reverse genetics approach to identify six new chloroplast editing factors in Arabidopsis thaliana (OTP80, OTP81, OTP82, OTP84, OTP85, and OTP86). These six factors account for nine editing sites not previously assigned to an editing factor and, together with the nine PPR editing proteins previously described, explain more than half of the 34 editing events in Arabidopsis chloroplasts. OTP80, OTP81, OTP85, and OTP86 target only one editing site each, OTP82 two sites, and OTP84 three sites in different transcripts. An analysis of the target sites requiring the five editing factors involved in editing of multiple sites (CRR22, CRR28, CLB19, OTP82, and OTP84) suggests that editing factors can generally distinguish pyrimidines from purines and, at some positions, must be able to recognize specific bases.

SUBAcon is a useful tool for recovering proteome-wide subcellular locations of Arabidopsis proteins and is displayed in the SUBA3 database (http://suba.plantenergy.uwa.edu.au). The source code and input data is available through the SUBA3 server (http://suba.plantenergy.uwa.edu.au//SUBAcon.html) and the Arabidopsis SUbproteome REference (ASURE) training set can be accessed using the ASURE web portal (http://suba.plantenergy.uwa.edu.au/ASURE).

NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (Complex I, EC 1.6.5.3) is the largest complex of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. In eukaryotes, it is composed of more than 40 subunits that are encoded by both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. Plant Complex I differs from the enzyme described in other eukaryotes, most notably due to the large number of plant-specific subunits in the membrane arm of the complex. The elucidation of the assembly pathway of Complex I has been a longstanding research aim in cellular biochemistry. We report the study of Arabidopsis mutants in Complex I subunits using a combination of Blue-Native PAGE and immunodetection to identify stable subcomplexes containing Complex I components, along with mass spectrometry analysis of Complex I components in membrane fractions and two-dimensional diagonal Tricine SDS-PAGE to study the composition of the largest subcomplex. Four subcomplexes of the membrane arm of Complex I with apparent molecular masses of 200, 400, 450, and 650 kDa were observed. We propose a working model for the assembly of the membrane arm of Complex I in plants and assign putative roles during the assembly process for two of the subunits studied.NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (Complex I, EC 1.6.5.3) 2 is the main entry point for electrons in the mitochondrial respiratory chain. It is the largest and most complicated complex of the respiratory chain. In higher eukaryotes, it is composed of more than 40 subunits. It has a dual genetic origin: 5 to 9 subunits are encoded by the mitochondrial genome, and the others are encoded by the nuclear genome. This complex consists of two parts forming an L-shaped structure: the membrane arm forms the base of the L and is embedded within the inner mitochondrial membrane, while the matrix arm forms the side of the L, bonded at one end of the membrane arm and perpendicularly protruding into the soluble matrix space. The matrix arm contains all the Fe-S clusters and the NADH oxidizing activity, while the membrane arm contains the ubiquinone-binding site. The detailed composition, mechanistic analysis of function, and elucidation of the assembly pathway of Complex I have been long-standing areas of research in a range of different species.The localization of the different subunits within the two arms of mitochondrial Complex I has been intensively investigated in the bovine enzyme. This purified Complex I has been fragmented into three parts: , corresponding to the matrix arm, ␤, corresponding to the membrane arm, and ␣, the matrix arm and some membrane subunits that allow the anchoring of the matrix arm in the inner membrane (1). Complex I assembly has been most intensively investigated using mutants of genes encoding Complex I subunits in Neurospora crassa (2) and human (3, 4). Some mutants lacking one Complex I subunits do not contain a fully assembled Complex I but accumulate stable subcomplexes of Complex I. The formation of stable assembly subcomplexes can be identified using antibodies raised against specific Complex I subunits (2-4). Other a...

Splicing of plant organellar transcripts is facilitated by members of a large protein family, the pentatricopeptide repeat proteins. We have identified a pentatricopeptide repeat protein in a genetic screen for mutants resistant to inhibition of root growth by buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), an inhibitor of glutathione synthesis and consequently named BIR6 (BSO-insensitive roots 6). BIR6 is involved in splicing of intron 1 of the mitochondrial nad7 transcript. Loss-of-function mutations in BIR6 result in a strongly reduced accumulation of fully processed nad7 transcript. This affects assembly of Complex I and results in moderate growth retardation. In agreement with disruption of Complex I function, the genes encoding alternative NADH oxidizing enzymes are induced in the mutant, and the mutant plants are less sensitive to mannitol and salt stress. Mutation in the BIR6 gene allowed normal root growth in presence of BSO and strongly attenuated depletion of glutathione content at these conditions. The same phenotype was observed with other mutants affected in function of Complex I, thus reinforcing the importance of Complex I function for cellular redox homeostasis.

SUMMARYOver 20 proteins of the pentatricopeptide repeat (PPR) family have been demonstrated to be involved in RNA editing in plant mitochondria and chloroplasts. All of these editing factors contain a so-called 'E' domain that has been shown to be essential for editing to occur. The presumption has been that this domain recruits the (unknown) editing enzyme to the RNA. In this report, we show that not all putative E-class PPR proteins are directly involved in RNA editing. Disruption of the OTP70 gene leads to a strong defect in splicing of the plastid transcript rpoC1, leading to a virescent phenotype. The mutant has a chloroplast transcript pattern characteristic of a reduction in plastid-encoded RNA polymerase activity. The E domain of OTP70 is not required for splicing, and can be deleted or replaced by the E domain from the known editing factor CRR4 without loss of rpoC1 splicing. Furthermore, the E domain of OTP70 is incapable of inducing RNA editing when fused to the RNA binding domain of CRR4. We conclude that the truncated E domain of OTP70 is no longer functional in RNA editing, and that the protein has acquired a new function in promoting RNA splicing.