TY - JOUR T1 - Correction of frameshift mutations in the <em>atpB</em> gene by translational recoding in chloroplasts of <em>Oenothera</em> and tobacco JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2020.09.11.293548 SP - 2020.09.11.293548 AU - Irina Malinova AU - Arkadiusz Zupok AU - Amid Massouh AU - Mark Aurel Schöttler AU - Etienne H. Meyer AU - Liliya Yaneva-Roder AU - Witold Szymanski AU - Margit Rößner AU - Stephanie Ruf AU - Ralph Bock AU - Stephan Greiner Y1 - 2020/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/09/12/2020.09.11.293548.abstract N2 - Translational recoding, also known as ribosomal frameshifting, is a process that causes ribosome slippage along the messenger RNA, thereby changing the amino acid sequence of the synthesized protein. Whether the chloroplast employs recoding, is unknown. I-iota, a plastome mutant of Oenothera (evening primrose), carries a single adenine insertion in an oligoA stretch of atpB (encoding a β-subunit of the ATP synthase). The mutation is expected to cause synthesis of a truncated, non-functional protein. We report that a full-length AtpB protein is detectable in I-iota leaves, suggesting operation of a recoding mechanism. To characterize the phenomenon, transplastomic tobacco lines were generated, in which the atpB reading frame was altered by insertions or deletions in the oligoA motif. We found that insertion of two adenines was more efficiently compensated than insertion of a single adenine, or deletion of one or two adenines. We further show that homopolymeric composition of the oligoA stretch is essential for recoding. Plants carrying a disrupted oligoA stretch have an albino-phenotype, indicating absence of indel correction. Our work provides evidence for the operation of translational recoding in chloroplasts. Recoding enables correction of frameshift mutations and can restore photoautotrophic growth in mutants that otherwise would be lethal. ER -