Chloroplast transfer RNAs and tRNA genes of wheat

Abstract

Fractionation (by two-dimensional polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) of total tRNA from wheat chloroplasts yields about 33 RNA spots. Of these, 30 have been identified by aminoacylation as containing tRNAs specific for 17 amino acids.Hybridization of labeled individual tRNAs to cloned chloroplast DNA fragments has revealed the location of at least nine pairs of tRNA genes in the segments of the inverted repeat, at least twelve tRNA genes in the large single copy region and one tRNA gene in the small single copy region.A comparison of this wheat chloroplast tRNA gene map to that of maize and of other higher plants suggests that gene rearrangements have occurred during evolution, even within cereal chloroplast DNA. These rearrangements have taken place within the inverted repeat, within the large single copy region and between the inverted repeat and the large single copy region.