Plastids are vital organelles, fulfilling important metabolic functions that greatly influence plant growth and productivity. In order to both regulate and harness the metabolic output of plastids, it is vital that the process of plastid division is carefully controlled. This is essential, not only to ensure persistence in dividing plant cells and that optimal numbers of plastids are obtained in specialized cell types, but also to allow the cell to act in response to developmental signals and environmental changes. How this control is exerted by the host nucleus has remained elusive. Plastids evolved by endosymbiosis and during the establishment of a permanent endosymbiosis they retained elements of the bacterial cell-division machinery. Through evolution the photosynthetic eukaryotes have increased dramatically in complexity, from single-cell green algae to multicellular non-vascular and vascular plants. Reflected with this is an increasing complexity of the division machinery and recent findings also suggest increasing complexity in the molecular mechanisms used by the host cell to control the process of plastid division. In the present paper, we explore the current understanding of the process of plastid division at the molecular and cellular level, with particular respect to the evolution of the division machinery and levels of control exerted on the process.
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Conference Article|
May 24 2010
The complexity and evolution of the plastid-division machinery
Jodi Maple;
Jodi Maple
1Centre for Organelle Research, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Stavanger, 4036 Stavanger, Norway, and The Norwegian Centre for Movement Disorders, Stavanger University Hospital, 4068 Stavanger, Norway
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Simon Geir Møller
1Centre for Organelle Research, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Stavanger, 4036 Stavanger, Norway, and The Norwegian Centre for Movement Disorders, Stavanger University Hospital, 4068 Stavanger, Norway
2To whom correspondence should be addressed (email simon.g.moller@uis.no).
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Publisher: Portland Press Ltd
Received:
December 17 2009
Online ISSN: 1470-8752
Print ISSN: 0300-5127
© The Authors Journal compilation © 2010 Biochemical Society
2010
Biochem Soc Trans (2010) 38 (3): 783–788.
Article history
Received:
December 17 2009
Citation
Jodi Maple, Simon Geir Møller; The complexity and evolution of the plastid-division machinery. Biochem Soc Trans 1 June 2010; 38 (3): 783–788. doi: https://doi.org/10.1042/BST0380783
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