title: The Engineered Chloroplast Genome Just Got Smarter.
abstract: Chloroplasts are known to sustain life on earth by providing food, fuel, and oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. However, the chloroplast genome has also been smartly engineered to confer valuable agronomic traits and/or serve as bioreactors for the production of industrial enzymes, biopharmaceuticals, bioproducts, or vaccines. The recent breakthrough in hyperexpression of biopharmaceuticals in edible leaves has facilitated progression to clinical studies by major pharmaceutical companies. This review critically evaluates progress in developing new tools to enhance or simplify expression of targeted genes in chloroplasts. These tools hold the promise to further the development of novel fuels and products, enhance the photosynthetic process, and increase our understanding of retrograde signaling and cellular processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, PR China.
authors.forename: Shuangxia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. Electronic address: hdaniell@upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Daniell
mesh_terms: D002736:Chloroplasts / Q000235:genetics*; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D054628:Genome, Chloroplast / Q000235:genetics*; D010788:Photosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000235:genetics; D015398:Signal Transduction