Evolution and Design Principles of the Diverse Chloroplast Transit Peptides

Chloroplasts are present in organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. These organelles are thought to have originated from photosynthetic cyanobacteria through endosymbiosis. During endosymbiosis, most cyanobacterial genes were transferred to the host nucleus. Therefore, most chloroplast proteins...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecules and cells 2018, 41(3), , pp.161-167
Main Authors: Lee, Dong Wook, Hwang, Inhwan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chloroplast Proteins - metabolism
Minireview
Protein Sorting Signals
Symbiosis - genetics
생물학
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Chloroplasts are present in organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. These organelles are thought to have originated from photosynthetic cyanobacteria through endosymbiosis. During endosymbiosis, most cyanobacterial genes were transferred to the host nucleus. Therefore, most chloroplast proteins became encoded in the nuclear genome and must return to the chloroplast after translation. The N-terminal cleavable transit peptide (TP) is necessary and sufficient for the import of nucleus-encoded interior chloroplast proteins. Over the past decade, extensive research on the TP has revealed many important characteristic features of TPs. These studies have also shed light on the question of how the many diverse TPs could have evolved to target specific proteins to the chloroplast. In this review, we summarize the characteristic features of TPs. We also highlight recent advances in our understanding of TP evolution and provide future perspectives about this important research area.
ISSN:1016-8478
0219-1032
DOI:10.14348/molcells.2018.0033