Mechanisms of protein import into thylakoids of chloroplasts
Abstract
The thylakoid membrane of chloroplasts contains the major photosynthetic complexes, which consist of several either nuclear or chloroplast encoded subunits. The biogenesis of these thylakoid membrane complexes requires coordinated transport and subsequent assembly of the subunits into functional complexes. Nuclear-encoded thylakoid proteins are first imported into the chloroplast and then directed to the thylakoid using different sorting mechanisms. The cpSec pathway and the cpTat pathway are mainly involved in the transport of lumenal proteins, whereas the spontaneous pathway and the cpSRP pathway are used for the insertion of integral membrane proteins into the thylakoid membrane. While cpSec-, cpTat- and cpSRP-mediated targeting can be classified as ‘assisted’ mechanisms involving numerous components, ‘unassisted’ spontaneous insertion does not require additional targeting factors. However, even the assisted pathways differ fundamentally with respect to stromal targeting factors, the composition of the translocase and energy requirements.
©2007 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- To our authors, readers and subscribers ‘Just Accepted’ feature at http://www.atypon-link.com/WDG/loi/bchm
- Paper of the Year 2006: Award to Pamela Hamill
- The endosymbiotic origin of organelles: an ancient process still very much in fashion
- Solute channels of the outer membrane: from bacteria to chloroplasts
- Diverse mechanisms and machineries for import of mitochondrial proteins
- Transport of nuclear-encoded proteins into secondarily evolved plastids
- Mechanisms of protein import into thylakoids of chloroplasts
- Molecular machinery of mitochondrial dynamics in yeast
- Chloroplast photorelocation movement mediated by phototropin family proteins in green plants
- Plastid division in an evolutionary context
- Variability of the mitochondrial genome in mammals at the inter-species/intra-species boundary
- Diversity of proteasomal missions: fine tuning of the immune response
- Cellular expression of plasma prekallikrein in human tissues
- Sumoylation of the zinc finger protein ZXDC enhances the function of its transcriptional activation domain
- Josephin domain-containing proteins from a variety of species are active de-ubiquitination enzymes
- Cysteine protease inhibitors reduce brain β-amyloid and β-secretase activity in vivo and are potential Alzheimer's disease therapeutics
