Abstract
Secondary or complex plastids arose by the engulfment of photosynthetically active eukaryotes by eukaryotic host cells. Co-evolution of the host cell and the endosymbiont led to the establishment of complex plastids, which are surrounded by additional membranes in comparison to chloroplasts from land plants. Plastid proteins, encoded by the genome of the host cell have to be imported from the host cytoplasm into the complex plastid thereby crossing up to four plastid surrounding membranes. This resulted in an increased complexity of targeting signals as well as transport- and sorting machineries. Here we summarize current knowledge about protein transport into different types of complex plastids, indicating that pre-existing mechanisms were often reused and altered to fulfill new requirements.
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Abbreviations
- BTS:
-
Bipartite targeting signal
- CASH:
-
Cryptophytes, alveolates, stramenopiles, and haptophytes
- EGT:
-
Endosymbiotic gene transfer
- ER:
-
Endoplasmatic reticulum
- ERAD:
-
ER-associated degradation
- PPC:
-
Periplastidal compartment
- SELMA:
-
Symbiont-specific ERAD-like machinery
- SP:
-
Signal peptide
- TAT:
-
Twin arginine targeting
- TIC:
-
Translocon of the inner chloroplast membrane
- TOC:
-
Translocon of the outer chloroplast membrane
- TP:
-
Transit peptide
- TTDs:
-
Thylakoid targeting domains
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Hempel, F., Bolte, K., Klingl, A., Zauner, S., Maier, UG. (2014). Protein Transport into Plastids of Secondarily Evolved Organisms. In: Theg, S., Wollman, FA. (eds) Plastid Biology. Advances in Plant Biology, vol 5. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1136-3_11
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