IJMS, Vol. 19, Pages 733: Insights into the Mechanisms of Chloroplast Division

IJMS, Vol. 19, Pages 733: Insights into the Mechanisms of Chloroplast Division

International Journal of Molecular Sciences doi: 10.3390/ijms19030733

Authors: Yamato Yoshida

The endosymbiosis of a free-living cyanobacterium into an ancestral eukaryote led to the evolution of the chloroplast (plastid) more than one billion years ago. Given their independent origins, plastid proliferation is restricted to the binary fission of pre-existing plastids within a cell. In the last 25 years, the structure of the supramolecular machinery regulating plastid division has been discovered, and some of its component proteins identified. More recently, isolated plastid-division machineries have been examined to elucidate their structural and mechanistic details. Furthermore, complex studies have revealed how the plastid-division machinery morphologically transforms during plastid division, and which of its component proteins play a critical role in generating the contractile force. Identifying the three-dimensional structures and putative functional domains of the component proteins has given us hints about the mechanisms driving the machinery. Surprisingly, the mechanisms driving plastid division resemble those of mitochondrial division, indicating that these division machineries likely developed from the same evolutionary origin, providing a key insight into how endosymbiotic organelles were established. These findings have opened new avenues of research into organelle proliferation mechanisms and the evolution of organelles.

from #AlexandrosSfakianakis via Alexandros G.Sfakianakis on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2Fn11ir
via IFTTT