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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Analysis of Protein Import into Chloroplasts Isolated from Stressed Plants
Published on: November 1, 2016
Engineering chloroplasts: an alternative site for foreign genes, proteins, reactions and products
1Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Ave, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. bogorad@biosun.harvard.edu
Abstract:
Plant genetic engineering via the nucleus is a mature technology that has been used very productively for research and commercial biotechnology. By contrast, the ability to introduce foreign genes at specific locations on a chloroplast's chromosome has been acquired relatively recently. Certain limitations of nuclear genome transformation methods might be overcome by the site-specific introduction of genes into plastid chromosomes. In addition, plastids, mitochondria and other subcellular organelles might provide more favorable environments than the nuclear-cytoplasmic compartment for certain biochemical reactions and for accumulating large amounts of some gene and enzyme products.
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