Chloroplast transit peptides from the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii share features with both mitochondrial and higher plant chloroplast presequences.
Chloroplast transit peptides from the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii have been analyzed and compared with chloroplast transit peptides from higher plants and mitochondrial targeting peptides from yeast, Neurospora and higher eukaryotes. In terms of length and amino acid composition, chloroplast transit peptides from C. reinhardtii are more similar to mitochondrial targetting peptides than to chloroplast transit peptides from higher plants. They also contain the potential amphiphilic alpha-helix characteristic of mitochondrial presequences. However, in similarity with chloroplast transit peptides from higher plants, they contain a C-terminal region with the potential to form an amphiphilic beta-strand. As in higher plants, transit peptides that route proteins to the thylakoid lumen consist of an N-terminal domain similar to stroma-targeting transit peptides attached to a C-terminal apolar domain that share many characteristics with secretory signal peptides.
Department of Biochemistry, Arrhenius laboratories, University of Stockholm, Sweden.
L G
LG
Franzén
J D
JD
Rochaix
G
G
von Heijne
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D002696:Chlamydomonas / Q000032:analysis*; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000032:analysis*; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000032:analysis*; D005656:Fungal Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000032:analysis*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010455:Peptides / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D045322:Photosynthetic Reaction Center Complex Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000032:analysis*
D005656:Fungal Proteins; D045342:Light-Harvesting Protein Complexes; D010455:Peptides; D045322:Photosynthetic Reaction Center Complex Proteins; D010940:Plant Proteins; D002734:Chlorophyll