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Plant Source Foods
Published in Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy, Food and Lifestyle in Health and Disease, 2022
Chuong Pham-Huy, Bruno Pham Huy
Another characteristic of plants is the presence of a number of chloroplasts in cells. Chloroplasts are organelles named plastids found exclusively in plant and algal cells for the major conversion of the sun’s radiation energy to chemical energy-rich molecules that is usable by organisms – like solar panels. A chloroplast is a green plastid that contains chlorophylls and is responsible for light-powered photosynthetic reactions and carbon assimilation in the plant cell (6, 13–14).
Chloroplast DNA and Phylogenetic Relationships
Published in S. K. Dutta, DNA Systematics, 2019
In many land plants, the chloroplast and its genome are inherited maternally, and even in those plants with biparental plastid inheritance plastid fusion appears to be absent. The comparative study of maternally inherited genomes provides distinct phylogenetic insights, as discussed in Section IV.A. Fusion of chloroplasts and subsequent recombination of chloroplast genomes from both parents has been observed only in the green algal genus Chlamydomonas, which has emerged as the only system for performing chloroplast genetics.
Leveraging Genome Sequencing Strategies for Basic and Applied Algal Research, Exemplified by Case Studies
Published in Gokare A. Ravishankar, Ranga Rao Ambati, Handbook of Algal Technologies and Phytochemicals, 2019
Ariana A. Vasconcelos, Vitor H. Pomin
C. paradoxa was indeed a great model of study. This species has shown characteristics for retaining ancestral mechanisms of starch biosynthesis, fermentation and translocation of plastid proteins. In this case, the presence of protein-conducting channels in the outer and inner membranes of C. paradoxa plastid casings was a reference to the system of the photosynthetic eukaryotes. The analyses have shown traces of an ancient binding with parasites such as Chlamydiae in the genomes of C. paradoxa and other plants. Apparently, chlamydia-like bacteria seemed to donate genes related to plastid photosynthesis and polysaccharide polymerization to be stored in the cytosol (Chan et al. 2011).
Toxoplasma gondii infection: novel emerging therapeutic targets
Published in Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets, 2023
Joachim Müller, Andrew Hemphill
The apicoplast, a specific organelle that is a plant chloroplast homolog, is found in T. gondii and other apicomplexans. Since these plastids harbor specific metabolic pathways absent from mammalian cells, it is natural that not only plastid-borne protein biosynthesis (see above) but also metabolic pathways are regarded as suitable anti-Toxoplasma drug targets [75,100]. Since lipid biosynthesis in plants is plastid-borne and can be targeted by various herbicides, it is straightforward to test such compounds against T. gondii. In vitro tachyzoite proliferation and activity of recombinant Acetyl-Coenzyme A-carboxylase, the first key enzyme of lipid biosynthesis, is inhibited by aryloxyphenoxypropionate herbicides [101]. Moreover, fatty acid synthase II is inhibited by the herbicide haloxyfop [102]. These studies and the generation of a conditional null mutant of the apicoplast acyl carrier protein reveal that apicoplast borne fatty acid biosynthesis is essential for the survival of T. gondii in vitro as well as in vivo [103]. In detail, apicoplast fatty acid synthesis seems to be essential to compounds required for the final step of parasite division [104].
Successful production of human epidermal growth factor in tobacco chloroplasts in a biologically active conformation
Published in Growth Factors, 2023
Yunpeng Wang, Jieying Fan, Niaz Ahmad, Wen Xin, Zhengyi Wei, Shaochen Xing
Expression of recombinant proteins by chloroplast transformation shows several advantages: (1), high expression level due to large number of gene copy in a single plant cell; (2), site-specific insertion of transgene into plastid genome by homologous recombination; (3), capable of multigene transformation by using polycistronic strategy; (4), higher biosecurity as most of transgenes in chloroplasts are maternal inheritance. Transformation of the chloroplast genome has shown the expression of recombinant proteins at extraordinary levels (Ahmad et al. 2012; Oey et al. 2009; Ruhlman et al. 2010). For example, 75.60 ± 4.32% TSP of β-glucosidase accumulated in tobacco chloroplasts (Castiglia et al. 2016). Therefore, chloroplast transformation is quite attractive for the cost-effective production of high value targets at large scale (Xing and Liu 2006; Ahmad and Mukhtar 2013; Ahmad et al. 2016). There have been two studies reporting the expression of hEGF in higher plant chloroplasts (Wirth et al. 2006; Morgenfeld et al. 2020). These studies suggested that hEGF were unstable in chloroplasts due to the redox potential and misfolding. The accumulation of native hEGF in the stroma was undetectable, and could only be detected when fused with β-glucuronidase (GUS) in the stroma or fused with transit peptide (Str) and located in the thylakoid lumen. In this study, we report the successful expression of free hEGF with poly-histidine tag in a functionally active form in tobacco chloroplast stroma demonstrating the potential of tobacco chloroplasts for large-scale production of high-value targets of commercial importance.
Insect-bacterial mosaic produces peptidoglycan in mealybug
Published in Pathogens and Global Health, 2019
PG is essential to maintain the bacterial cell shape and protect from turgor, it has a fundamental composition, identifiable in all bacteria, although some species-specific variations have been described and they may impact on the pathogenicity of the bacteria [3]. Insects have Peptidoglycan Recognition Proteins (PGRP) that are critical for the detection of pathogen associated molecular patterns and are involved in the activation of anti-bacterial responses [4]. Though the authors do not indicate the functional role of the PG layer, they infer from studies on plastids that the PG takeover from its endosymbiont can represent a critical element in the regulation of the cellular division of the bacteria. Interestingly, in this article the authors refer to a paper by De Vries & Gould (2018) which in moss showed how the knock-out of a PG-related HGT (horizontal gene transfer) on the nuclear genome results in an increased size of chloroplast [5].