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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Studying Protein Import into Chloroplasts Using Protoplasts
Published on: December 10, 2018
Sequence of Prochloron didemni atpBE and the inference of chloroplast origins
P J Lockhart1, T J Beanland, C J Howe
1School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Abstract:
The prochlorophytes, oxygenic photosynthetic prokaryotes containing chlorophylls a and b, have been put forward as descended from the organisms that gave rise to chloroplasts of green plants and algae by endosymbiosis, although this has always been controversial. To assess the phylogenetic position of the prochlorophyte Prochloron didemni, we have cloned and sequenced its atpBE genes. Phylogenetic inference under a range of models gives moderate to strong support for a cyanobacterial grouping rather than a chloroplast one. Possible systematic errors in this and previous analyses of prochlorophyte sequences are discussed.
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