Plastid division coordination across a double-membraned structure.
Chloroplasts still retain components of the bacterial cell division machinery and research over the past decade has led to an understanding of how these stromal division proteins assemble and function as a complex chloroplast division machinery. However, during evolution plant chloroplasts have acquired a number of cytosolic division proteins, indicating that unlike the cyanobacterial ancestors of plastids, chloroplast division in higher plants require a second division machinery located on the chloroplast outer envelope membrane. Here we review the current understanding of the stromal and cytosolic plastid division machineries and speculate how two protein machineries coordinate their activities across a double-membraned structure.
Maple
Jodi
J
Centre for Organelle Research, Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Stavanger, N-4036 Stavanger, Norway.
Møller
Simon Geir
SG
D005075:Biological Evolution; D002455:Cell Division / Q000502:physiology; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology*; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D018087:Plastids / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure