Mitochondrial energy-dissipating systems (alternative oxidase, uncoupling proteins, and external NADH dehydrogenase) are involved in development of frost-resistance of winter wheat seedlings.

Gene expression, protein synthesis, and activities of alternative oxidase (AOX), uncoupling proteins (UCP), adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT), and non-coupled NAD(P)H dehydrogenases (NDex, NDPex, and NDin) were studied in shoots of etiolated winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seedlings after exposure to hardening low positive (2°C for 7 days) and freezing (-2°C for 2 days) temperatures. The cold hardening efficiently increased frost-resistance of the seedlings and decreased the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during further cold shock.

Nuclear-mitochondrial cross-talk during heat shock in Arabidopsis cell culture.

Apart from energy generation, mitochondria perform a signalling function determining the life and death of a cell under stress exposure. In the present study we have explored patterns of heat-induced synthesis of Hsp101, Hsp70, Hsp17.6 (class I), Hsp17.

[Editing of the mitochondrial cox3 transcript may yield a new site of protein-protein interactions in wild cereal Elymus sibiricus L].

With PCR, RT-PCR, and direct sequencing, complete nucleotide sequences were established for the Elymus sibiricus mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 3 gene (cox3) and its cDNA. The cox3 transcript was shown to have 12 editing sites with changes affecting the amino acid sequence of the protein product. The editing of the primary cox3 transcript was found to change the position of a site of protein-protein interactions.

[RNA editing in different genetic systems].

One of the significant amendments to the central dogma of the molecular biology was the discovery of the RNA editing process in different genetic systems. Whereas other forms of co- and posttranscriptional modifications of messenger RNA (mRNA) (capping, polyadenilation, splicing) retain the correspondence of the primary structure of exon and final transcript, RNA editing disturbs this correspondence changing the primary structure of mRNA after its transcription. The variants of RNA-editing mechanisms are various and include site-specific insertions and deletions of one or several nucleotides (insertion-deletion editing) as well as specific modifications of nucleosides such as C-->U and A-->I deamination or U-->C transamination (conversion editing).