About the Authors

Yusuke Yagi

Affiliations Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, Institute of Advanced Study, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

Shimpei Hayashi

Affiliation Genetically Modified Organism Research Center, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Ibaraki, Japan

Keiko Kobayashi

Affiliations Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, Institute of Advanced Study, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

Takashi Hirayama

Affiliation Institute of Plant Science and Resources, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan

Takahiro Nakamura

tnaka@agr.kyushu-u.ac.jp

Affiliations Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, Institute of Advanced Study, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan, Biotron Application Center, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have a patent pending associated with this manuscript (PCT/JP2012/077274). The patent claims (1) identification of PPR protein that specifically binds to a particular RNA sequence, (2) identification of target RNA molecule for a particular PPR protein, (3) creation of a custom RNA-binding protein, and (4) functional control of a particular RNA molecule by utilization of the RNA recognition code for PPR motifs described in this manuscript (especially in Table S4). The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest in connection with this paper, relating to employment, consultancy, products in development or modified product, ownership of stocks and shares, research grants, travel grants and honoraria for speaking or participation at meetings, and gifts of any kind. The authors confirm that they did not alter their adherence to all PLOS ONE policies, including sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: YY TN. Performed the experiments: YY KK SH TH. Analyzed the data: YY SH KK TH TN. Wrote the paper: YY TN.