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Protein Targeting into the Complex Plastid of Cryptophytes

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Abstract

The cryptophyte Guillardia theta harbors a plastid surrounded by four membranes. This turns protein targeting of nucleus-encoded endosymbiont localized proteins into quite a challenge, as the respective precursors have to pass either all four membranes to reach the plastid stroma or only the outermost two membranes to enter the periplastidal compartment. Therefore two sets of nuclear-encoded proteins imported into the endosymbiont can be distinguished and their topogenic signals may serve as good indicators for studying protein targeting and subsequent transport across the outermost membranes of the cryptophyte plastid. We isolated genes encoding enzymes involved in two different biochemical pathways, both of which are predicted to be localized inside the periplastidal compartment, and compared their topogenic signals to those of precursor proteins for the plastid stroma, which are encoded on either the nucleus or the nucleomorph. By this and exemplary in vitro and in vivo analyses of the topogenic signal of one protein localized in the periplastidal compartment, we present new data implicating the mechanism of targeting and transport of proteins to and across the outermost plastid membranes. Furthermore, we demonstrate that one single, but conserved amino acid is the triggering key for the discrimination between nucleus-encoded plastid and periplastidal proteins.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Doris Ballert for help in diatom transfromation. Additionally, we thank Prof. E. Neuhaus (Kaiserslautern, Germany) and Steven Ball (Villeneuve d’Ascq, France) for helpful discussions on starch metabolism in cryptophytes. This work was supported by the DFG (project SFB593 to U.-G. Maier and project KR 1661/3-1 to P.G. Kroth). Accession numbers are as follows: AJ784213, AJ937541, AJ937542, AJ937543, AJ937544, AJ937545, AJ937546.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cell Biology, Philipps-University Marburg, Karl-von-Frisch Straße 8, 35042, Marburg, Germany

    Sven B. Gould, Maik S. Sommer, Katalin Hadfi, Stefan Zauner & Uwe-G. Maier

  2. Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätsstraße 10, 78457, Konstanz, Germany

    Peter G. Kroth

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  1. Sven B. Gould
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  2. Maik S. Sommer
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  6. Uwe-G. Maier
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Correspondence to Uwe-G. Maier.

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[Reviewing Editor: Dr. Yves Van de Peer]

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Gould, S.B., Sommer, M.S., Hadfi, K. et al. Protein Targeting into the Complex Plastid of Cryptophytes. J Mol Evol 62, 674–681 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00239-005-0099-y

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