Nuclear Gene-Regulated Expression of Chloroplast Genes for Coupling Factor One in Maize

Abstract

In order to gain a better understanding of the interaction between the chloroplast and nuclear genomes in controlling the expression of plastid genes and the biosynthesis of chloroplast proteins, maize (Zea mays) Plastids of higher plants can differentiate into a number of forms including photosynthetically active chloroplasts, starchstoring amyloplasts, and carotenoid crystal-containing chloroplasts. Plastid metabolism requires the products of hundreds of genes but the plastid genome encodes many fewer. Most plastid proteins are products of the nuclear-cytoplasmic system; they must be imported from outside of the organelle. Genes for polypeptides of multimeric components of plastids including ribosomes, RuBP3 carboxylase/oxygenase, CF1 (coupling factor one for photophosphorylation), thylakoids, and others are dispersed in the nuclear and plastid genomes. Such dispersal of genes seems to be a feature of eukaryotic cell biology (2). Understanding the mechanisms for integration of nuclear and organelle gene expression, particularly for these multimeric components, is a central problem of eukaryotic cell biology.

DNA Methylation Occurred around Lowly Expressed Genes of Plastid DNA during Tomato Fruit Development

“…In order to identify methylated genes, digested DNA fragments were transferred to GeneScreen (New England Nuclear) and subjected to the South-em hybridization (21). Cloned fragments of maize chloroplast genes were used throughout this investigation by permission of Dr. L. Bogorad of Harvard University as follows (10): RuBisCO large subunit (rbcL, pZmc46 1), PG32 (psbA, pZmc427), asubunit of CF1 (atpA, 0.6-kbp HindIll fragment of pZmc527), fA-and e-subunits of CF, (atpB,E, pZR4876), apoprotein of P700 (psaA, pZmc556), ribosomal protein S4 (rps4, pZmc747), and 16S rDNA (pZmc532). No hybridization of the plastid with plasmid vectors was observed.…”

Transcriptional regulation and DNA methylation of nuclear genes for photosynthesis in nongreen plant cells.

“…The transcriptional, posttranscriptional (1,2), and translational (3, 4) controls as well as posttranslational regulation (5) have been postulated as mechanisms governing the expression of photosynthesis genes during plastid differentiation, and along this line of research we have selected liquid-cultured cells of sycamore, plane maple (Acerpseudoplatanus) as an experimental system. The white wild cell line of sycamore grows heterotrophically, whereas the sibling green mutant cell line originally isolated from the former by the mutagen treatment (6) can be cultured under complete autotrophic condition and absolutely requires light illumination (7).…”

Lawrence Bogorad (1921–2003), a pioneer in photosynthesis research: a tribute

“…The pose and topic will be familiar to many. ments proved to be instructive in understanding mechanisms of photosynthetic complex assembly (Kobayashi et al 1987). The Bogorad lab was also among the first to use antisense RNA technology in plants in the mid-1980s, successfully generating Rubisco (rbcS) antisense mutants of tobacco to examine nuclear-chloroplast interactions (Rodermel et al 1988).…”