A duplicated sequence in sugarbeet mitochondrial transcripts is differentially edited: analysis of orfB and its derivative orf324 mRNAs.

RNA editing of the duplicated sequences was investigated in the transcripts of orfB and orf324 genes from sugarbeet mitochondria. The orf324 shares the first 59 bp of the reading frame and 321 bp upstream sequence with orfB. Two cytidine-to-uridine editing sites were found in orfB, but the corresponding cytidine residues remained unchanged in the transcripts of orf324. In the vicinity of the non-edited cytidine residues within the shared sequence element of orf324 were identified three point mutations that may abolish orf324 editing. Our results also suggest that selection of editing sites depends on primary sequence.