Characterization and laboratory evolution of mRNA-sized RNA import in mitochondria of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Although editing of genomes has been revolutionized since the development of the CRISPR/Cas9 technology, even the most genetically accessible eukaryotes harbor a genome that is not yet amenable for efficient CRISPR/RNA-guided endonuclease (RGEN) editing: the mitochondrial genome. The mitochondrial genome cannot be engineered due to limited knowledge on RNA import in the mitochondria. In this study we aimed to characterize RNA import and improve it through laboratory evolution.