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Updated: Jul 15, 2025

Studying Protein Import into Chloroplasts Using Protoplasts
Published on: December 10, 2018
A viral protein targets mitochondria and chloroplasts by subverting general import pathways and specific receptors
María Sáiz-Bonilla1, Andrea Martín-Merchán1, Vicente Pallás1
1Laboratory of Plant Molecular Virology, Department of Molecular and Evolutionary Plant Virology, Institute for Plant Molecular and Cell Biology, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Universitat Politècnica de València , Valencia, Spain.
Importance:
Many plant proteins and some proteins from plant pathogens are dually targeted to chloroplasts and mitochondria, and are supposed to be transported along the general pathways for organellar protein import, but this issue has not been explored yet. Moreover, organellar translocon receptors exist as families of several members whose functional specialization in different cargos is supposed but not thoroughly studied. This article provides novel insights into such topics showing for the first time that an exogenous protein, the melon necrotic spot virus coat protein, exploits the common Toc/Tom import systems to enter both mitochondria and chloroplasts while identifying the involved specific receptors.
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