Molecular and genetic analyses of Tic20 homologues in Arabidopsis thaliana chloroplasts

Evolutionary, Molecular and Genetic Analyses of Tic22 Homologues in Arabidopsis thaliana Chloroplasts

The Tic22 protein was previously identified in pea as a putative component of the chloroplast protein import apparatus. It is a peripheral protein of the inner envelope membrane, residing in the intermembrane space. In Arabidopsis, there are two Tic22 homologues, termed atTic22-III and atTic22-IV, both of which are predicted to localize in chloroplasts. These two proteins defined clades that ar...

Molecular characterisation of two paralogous SPO11 homologues in Arabidopsis thaliana.

The Spo11 protein of yeast has been found to be covalently bound to double-strand breaks in meiosis, demonstrating a unique role of the protein in the formation of these breaks. Homologues of the SPO11 gene have been found in various eukaryotes, indicating that the machinery involved in meiotic recombination is conserved in eukaryotes. Here we report on SPO11 homologues in plants. In contrast t...

Molecular characterisation of RecQ homologues in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Members of the RecQ family of DNA helicases are involved in processes linked to DNA replication, DNA recombination and gene silencing. RecQ homologues of various animals have been described recently. Here, for the first time for plants, we characterised cDNAs of all in all six different RecQ-like proteins that are expressed to different extents in Arabidopsis thaliana. Surprisingly, three of th...

Genetic analyses of DNA methyltransferases in Arabidopsis thaliana.

DNA methylation is a conserved epigenetic silencing mechanism that functions to suppress the proliferation of transposons and regulate the expression of endogenous genes. In plants, mutations that cause severe loss of DNA methylation result in reactivation of transposons as well as developmental abnormalities. We use the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana as a model system to study the establ...

Molecular-genetic characterization of thylakoid protein phosphorylation in Arabidopsis thaliana