This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Data All Versions of this Article: 20/7/1786    most recent tpc.107.054965v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Google Scholar Articles by Yu, F. Articles by Rodermel, S. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Yu, F. Articles by Rodermel, S. Agricola Articles by Yu, F. Articles by Rodermel, S.

Mutations in SUPPRESSOR OF VARIEGATION1, a Factor Required for Normal Chloroplast Translation, Suppress var2-Mediated Leaf Variegation in Arabidopsis^[W]

^a Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011
^b Graminor Breeding AS, Bjørke Forsøksgård, Hommelstadvegen 60, N-2344 Ilseng, Norway
^c Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720

¹ Address correspondence to rodermel{at}iastate.edu.

The Arabidopsis thaliana yellow variegated2 (var2) mutant is variegated due to lack of a chloroplast FtsH-like metalloprotease (FtsH2/VAR2). We have generated suppressors of var2 variegation to gain insight into factors and pathways that interact with VAR2 during chloroplast biogenesis. Here, we describe two such suppressors. Suppression of variegation in the first line, TAG-FN, was caused by disruption of the nuclear gene (SUPPRESSOR OF VARIEGATION1 [SVR1]) for a chloroplast-localized homolog of pseudouridine () synthase, which isomerizes uridine to in noncoding RNAs. svr1 single mutants were epistatic to var2, and they displayed a phenotypic syndrome that included defects in chloroplast rRNA processing, reduced chloroplast translation, reduced chloroplast protein accumulation, and elevated chloroplast mRNA levels. In the second line (TAG-IE), suppression of variegation was caused by a lesion in SVR2, the gene for the ClpR1 subunit of the chloroplast ClpP/R protease. Like svr1, svr2 was epistatic to var2, and clpR1 mutants had a phenotype that resembled svr1. We propose that an impairment of chloroplast translation in TAG-FN and TAG-IE decreased the demand for VAR2 activity during chloroplast biogenesis and that this resulted in the suppression of var2 variegation. Consistent with this hypothesis, var2 variegation was repressed by chemical inhibitors of chloroplast translation. In planta mutagenesis revealed that SVR1 not only played a role in uridine isomerization but that its physical presence was necessary for proper chloroplast rRNA processing. Our data indicate that defects in chloroplast rRNA processing are a common, but not universal, molecular phenotype associated with suppression of var2 variegation.