An essential RNase III insertion editing endonuclease in Trypanosoma brucei

RNA editing adds and deletes uridine nucleotides in many preedited mRNAs to create translatable mRNAs in the mitochondria of the parasite Trypanosoma brucei. Kinetoplastid RNA editing protein B3 (KREPB3, formerly TbMP61) is part of the multiprotein complex that catalyzes editing in T. brucei and contains an RNase III motif that suggests nuclease function. Repression of KREPB3 expression, either by RNA interference in procyclic forms (PFs) or by conditional inactivation of an ectopic KREPB3 allele in bloodstream forms (BFs) that lack both endogenous alleles, strongly inhibited growth and in vivo editing in PFs and completely blocked them in BFs. KREPB3 repression inhibited cleavage of insertion editing substrates but not deletion editing substrates in vitro, whereas the terminal uridylyl transferase, U-specific exoribonuclease, and ligase activities of editing were unaffected, and approximately 20S editosomes were retained. Expression of KREPB3 alleles with single amino acid mutations in the RNase III motif had similar consequences. These data indicate that KREPB3 is an RNA editing endonuclease that is specific for insertion sites and is accordingly renamed KREN2 (kinetoplastid RNA editing endonuclease 2).