The effect on RNA stability of adding an extra nucleotide to the 5 untranslated region of Chlamydomonas chloroplast rbcL transcripts

Abstract

ABSTRACT rbcL is a constitutively expressed gene in the Chlamydomonas chloroplast. The 5 untranslated region (5 UTR) is predicted to form an RNA secondary structure that might function in RNA stabilization. Earlier studies suggest that the specific 5 UTR sequence is vital for stabilizing rbcL transcripts in the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas. The addition of five extra nucleotides to the 5 terminus of rbcL transcripts decreased their stability drastically (Salvador et al., 2004). In this study an extra guanine nucleotide (+1G nt) was added to the 5 end of the 5 UTR region of the rbcL gene, to study its effect on RNA stability.