Fig. 5

The posttranscriptional RNA processing ofnad1andnad4was affected indek55.aThe expression of 35 mitochondrion-encoded genes in the WT (left) anddek55–1(right) kernels was detected via RT-PCR. TheZmActingene (GRMZM2G126010) was used as an internal control. Bothnad1andnad4are marked in red because their transcript abundance significantly decreased.bThe splicing efficiency of all 22 group II introns in maize mitochondrial-encoded genes was determined indek55–1and WT kernels via qRT-PCR. The values shown are the means of three biological replicates, and the error bars represent the standard deviations.c-dSchematic structure of thenad1gene (c) andnad4gene (d). The primers used for amplification are indicated. RT-PCR-based analysis of the intron splicing efficiency ofnad1in WT kernels and indek55–1anddek55–2μtant kernels at 15 DAP. All the PCR products were confirmed by sequencing. TheZmActingene (GRMZM2G126010) was used as an internal control. The unspliced and spliced fragments are indicated by red and black arrowheads, respectively. Exons are indicated as “ex”, and introns are indicated as “in”. The gel images in (a,c,d) were cropped; the original gel images are shown in Additional file1: Figs. S2-S3