University of Cambridge > Talks.cam > Plant Sciences Departmental Seminars > Chloroplast DNA - the case of the vanishing genome

  Browse A-Z

Log in

Cambridge users (raven)details Other usersdetails No account?details

Information on

Subscribing to talksdetails Finding a talkdetails Adding a talkdetails Disseminating talksdetails Help and Documentationdetails

Chloroplast DNA - the case of the vanishing genome

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

If you have a question about this talk, please contact jb511.

In most photosynthetic organisms there is a choroplast genome of 120 kbp or more. It encodes many (but not all) of the components of the photosynthetic light reactions and a protein synthesis machinery, as well as a variable number of other functions. These genes are located on a single molecule, present in multiple copies. In dinoflagellate algae, the situation is very different. Most of the genes typically found in chloroplasts have been relocated to the nucleus. Those left behind encode a subset of the light reaction polypeptides, as well as remarkable ‘minimalist’ rRNAs, and are located on small plasmids. Most of these plasmids carry a single gene. Some carry a few, and some, rather surprisingly, seem to carry none.

Given the apparent advantages of moving genes from chloroplast to nucleus, why should chloroplasts retain a genome at all? It has been suggested that some proteins may be difficult to import into the organelle, and that expression in the organelle offers better control. More recent arguments include the difficulty of transferring genes to the nucleus in organisms with a single plastid, and – for organisms with a reduced mitochondrial genome – a role in supplying tRNAs to the mitochondrion.

http://www.bioc.cam.ac.uk/uto/howe.html

This talk is part of the Plant Sciences Departmental Seminars series.

Tell a friend about this talk:

This talk is included in these lists:

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.

Other lists

Junior Mirror Symmetry Seminars Cambridge University Student Pugwash Society Talks Cambridge Zero Carbon Society

Other talks

Uncertainty Quantification of geochemical and mechanical compaction in layered sedimentary basins Identifying new gene regulating networks in immune cells Macrophage-derived extracellular succinate licenses neural stem cells to suppress chronic neuroinflammation Climate change, species' abundance changes and protected areas Social Representations of Women who Live as Men in Northern Albania BP KEYNOTE LECTURE: Importance of C-O Bond Activation for CO2/COUtilization - An Approach to Energy Conversion and Storage PTPmesh: Data Center Network Latency Measurements Using PTP Alzheimer's talks Formation and disease relevance of axonal endoplasmic reticulum, a "neuron within a neuron”. The frequency of ‘America’ in America Pruning and grafting syntactic trees for cross-lingual transfer tasks
 

© 2006-2024 Talks.cam, University of Cambridge. Contact Us | Help and Documentation | Privacy and Publicity