Recent Posts

Chloroplast protein import determines plant proteostasis and retrograde signaling (bioRxiv)

The neurological condition Huntington’s disease is caused by mutated versions of the Huntingtin gene that encode expanded stretches of polyglutamine repeats, resulting in protein aggregation. However, despite the widespread presence of polyglutamine repeat regions in plant proteomes, similar pathologies…

A synthetic switch based on orange carotenoid protein to control blue-green light responses in chloroplasts (Plant Physiol)

Synthetic biology aims to engineer and redesign components of natural organisms for useful purposes.  One of the most prolific areas of synthetic biology is based on the engineering of photoreactive proteins with signaling potential, such as photoreceptors. Natural photoreceptors consist of a prosthetic…

Review. Chloroplast development in green plant tissues: The interplay between light, hormones, and transcriptional regulation (New Phytol.)

Chloroplasts are indispensable for plant growth and physiological performance; not only for photosynthesis but also for many biochemical processes. Due to the endosymbiont origin of the chloroplast, chloroplast development requires sophisticated machinery to relay the signals between the nuclear and…

Keeping an “i-on” chloroplast gene expression

DeTar et al. examined whether disruption of ion homeostasis affects plastid gene expression and chloroplast development. Rachael Ann DeTar and Hans-Henning Kunz both at School of Biological Sciences at Washington State University & Plant Biochemistry at LMU Munich Background: Proteins that…

Membrane Insertion of Plastidic β-barrel Proteins

Gross et al. describe how plastidic β-barrel proteins are inserted into the outer envelopes of plastids. The Plant Cell (2021) https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koab052 By Nicole Spies, Lucia Gross, and Enrico Schleiff Background: Due to their endosymbiotic origin, chloroplasts possess both an outer…