Evolutionary aspects of plastid proteins involved in transcription: the transcription of a tiny genome is mediated by a complicated machinery.
Chloroplasts in land plants have a small genome consisting of only 100 genes encoding partial sets of proteins for photosynthesis, transcription and translation. Although it has been thought that chloroplast transcription is mediated by a basically cyanobacterium-derived system, due to the endosymbiotic origin of plastids, recent studies suggest the existence of a hybrid transcription machinery containing non-bacterial proteins that have been newly acquired during plant evolution. Here, we highlight chloroplast-specific non-bacterial transcription mechanisms by which land plant chloroplasts have gained novel functions.
Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Yusuke
Y
Yagi
Takashi
T
Shiina
D060365:Chloroplast Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D018745:Genome, Plant; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics; D014158:Transcription, Genetic
D060365:Chloroplast Proteins