Recent Posts

A chloroplast-localized mitochondrial calcium uniporter transduces osmotic stress in Arabidopsis (Nature Plants)

Calcium and chloroplasts are both at the heart of the signal transduction during environmental stress. Teardo et al. studied whether the chloroplast-localized mitochondrial calcium uniporter has a role in stress signaling. The group identified 6 homologs of mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) in Arabidopsis,…

HvCMF7 – a Key Switch of Chloroplast Differentiation in Barley

Li et al. identify the gene underlying the long-studied variegated albostrians mutant of barley. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.19.00132 By Mingjiu Li, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), Germany Background: Chloroplasts are the site of photosynthesis, which…

An RNA-chaperone-like Protein in Chloroplasts

Jiang et al. isolated a plastid-localized RNA-chaperone-like protein and investigated its function. Plant Cell https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.18.00946.  By Jingjing Jiang, Xin Chai, Nikolay Manavski, and Wei Chi  Background: RNA folding, which underlies the formation of RNA structure, is important…

Physiological performance of transplastomic tobacco plants overexpressing aquaporin AQP1 in chloroplast membranes (JXB)

A major factor in determining photosynthetic rate is the availability of CO2 at the site of fixation in the chloroplast stroma.  Classically, this has been thought to be mainly limited by stomatal conductance (diffusion from the air, through stomata, to sub-stomatal cavities).  However, more recently…