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Updated: May 19, 2026

Analysis of Protein Import into Chloroplasts Isolated from Stressed Plants
Published on: November 1, 2016
The biosynthetic capacities of the plastids and integration between cytoplasmic and chloroplast processes
Norbert Rolland1, Gilles Curien, Giovanni Finazzi
1Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire et Végétale, CNRS/Université Joseph Fourier Grenoble I/INRA/CEA, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France. norbert.rolland@cea.fr
Abstract:
Plastids are semiautonomous organelles derived from cyanobacterial ancestors. Following endosymbiosis, plastids have evolved to optimize their functions, thereby limiting metabolic redundancy with other cell compartments. Contemporary plastids have also recruited proteins produced by the nuclear genome of the host cell. In addition, many genes acquired from the cyanobacterial ancestor evolved to code for proteins that are targeted to cell compartments other than the plastid. Consequently, metabolic pathways are now a patchwork of enzymes of diverse origins, located in various cell compartments. Because of this, a wide range of metabolites and ions traffic between the plastids and other cell compartments. In this review, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the well-known, and of the as yet uncharacterized, chloroplast/cytosol exchange processes, which can be deduced from what is currently known about compartmentation of plant-cell metabolism.
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