The amino acid sequence of a plastid protein is developmentally regulated by RNA editing

RNA editing in plant organelles post-transcriptionally alters single nucleotides by C-to-U or U-to-C conversions at highly specific sites. Plant editing is generally viewed as a repair mechanism acting at the transcript level by restoring conserved amino acid residues. Here we report that an editing reaction within the ndhB transcript (encoding a pIastid NAD(P)H dehydrogenase subunit) is strictly dependent on active photosynthesis. Employing non-photosynthetic mutants, we show that in the absence of photosynthesis, the site remains unedited, whereas it is fully edited when the photosynthetic apparatus is intact. Moreover, the site also remains unedited during the etiolated stage of seedling development, suggesting that two different NdhB proteins are synthesized under photosynthetic versus non-photosynthetic conditions. This is the first case where RNA editing in plants appears to regulate gene expression qualitatively, resulting in the production of two different proteins from one and the same gene in a developmental stage-dependent manner.