Sequences of initiator and elongator methionine tRNAs in bean mitochondria

Summary Two bean mitochondria methionine transfer RNAs, purified by RPC-5 chromatography and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, have been sequenced usingin vitro post-labeling techniques.One of these tRNAs^Met has been identified by formylation using anE. coli enzyme as the mitochondrial tRNA_F^Met. It displays strong structural homologies with prokaryotic and chloroplast tRNA_F^Met sequences (70.1–83.1%) and with putative initiator tRNA_m^Met genes described for wheat, maize andOenothera mitochondrial genomes (88.3–89.6%).The other tRNA^Met, which is the mitochondrial elongator tRNA_F^Met, shows a high degree of sequence homology (93.3–96%& with chloroplast tRNA_m^Met, but a weak homology (40.7%) with a sequenced maize mitochondrial putative elongator tRNA_m^Met gene.Bean mitochondrial tRNA_F^Met and tRNA_m^Met were hybridized to Southern blots of the mitochondrial genomes of wheat and maize, whose maps have been recently published (15, 22), in order to locate the position of their genes.