Differences in editing of mitochondrial nad3 transcripts from CMS and fertile carrots.

A high level of the nucleotide sequence conservation was found for mitochondrial nad3 gene of carrot. Three silent nucleotide substitutions differentiate nad3 open reading frames from cytoplasmic male sterile and male fertile carrots. All these differences are preserved on the RNA level. Partial and silent editing also distinguished both carrots. Three of the C to U conversions were specific to the fertile line. In the two examined carrot lines editing did not affect the mode of alteration of encoded amino acids.