%0 Journal Article
%T Recent advances in the study of chloroplast gene expression and its evolution
%A Yusuke Yagi
%A Takashi Shiina
%J Frontiers in Plant Science
%D 2014
%I Frontiers Media
%R 10.3389/fpls.2014.00061
%X Chloroplasts are semiautonomous organelles which possess their own genome and gene expression system. However, extant chloroplasts contain only limited coding information, and are dependent on a large number of nucleus-encoded proteins. During plant evolution, chloroplasts have lost most of the prokaryotic DNA-binding proteins and transcription regulators that were present in the original endosymbiont. Thus, chloroplasts have a unique hybrid transcription system composed of the remaining prokaryotic components, such as a prokaryotic RNA polymerase as well as nucleus-encoded eukaryotic components. Recent proteomic and transcriptomic analyses have provided insights into chloroplast transcription systems and their evolution. Here, we review chloroplast-specific transcription systems, focusing on the multiple RNA polymerases, eukaryotic transcription regulators in chloroplasts, chloroplast promoters, and the dynamics of chloroplast nucleoids.
%K chloroplast
%K transcription
%K PEP
%K NEP
%K pTAC
%K nucleoid
%U http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpls.2014.00061/abstract