Summary
Chloroplasts belong to a diverse family of plant organelles called plastids that perform essential functions, including important steps in many biosynthetic pathways. All plastids differentiate from proplastids through a complex process, in which numerous events must be coordinated and integrated into the overall developmental pathway of the cell. Due to the overwhelming importance of chloroplasts as sites of oxygenic photosynthesis the differentiation of chloroplasts from proplastids has been most studied. Chloroplast biogenesis begins with the perception of light, which triggers the coordinated expression of genetic information contained in both the nuclear and plastid genomes. Subsequently the chloroplast protein import machinery plays a major role in organelle biogenesis, mediating the import of nuclear-encoded proteins into the organelle. This process is challenged by the complex organization of the chloroplast sub-compartments. The conversion of sunlight into chemical energy by the photosynthetic machinery requires thylakoid membranes, a specialized membrane system found in chloroplasts, and this process involving a complex cascade of biochemical and structural events. Here we will address the major molecular events following the initiation of chloroplast biogenesis, culminating in the formation of the mature chloroplast and the segregation of plastids to daughter cells during cell division.
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Abbreviations
- ARC:
-
– Accumulation and replication of chloroplast;
- ATP:
-
– Adenosine-5’-triphosphate;
- Cry:
-
– Cryptochromes;
- GTP:
-
– Guanosine-5’-triphosphate;
- LHCII:
-
– Light harvesting complex II;
- NADPH:
-
– Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate;
- NEP:
-
– Nuclear encoded polymerase;
- PDV:
-
– Plastid division proteins;
- PEP:
-
– Plastid encoded polymerase;
- PIFs:
-
– phytochrome-interacting factor;
- PSI:
-
– Photosystem I;
- PSII:
-
– Photosystem II;
- TIC:
-
– Translocon at the inner envelope membrane of chloroplasts;
- TOC:
-
– Translocon at the outer envelope membrane of chloroplasts;
- VIPP:
-
– Vesicle-inducing protein in plastids
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Acknowledgments
Plastid division research in our laboratory is funded by the Norwegian Research Council.
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Møller, S.G., Maple, J., Gargano, D. (2014). Biogenesis of Chloroplasts. In: Hohmann-Marriott, M. (eds) The Structural Basis of Biological Energy Generation. Advances in Photosynthesis and Respiration, vol 39. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8742-0_23
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