Rice is the most important crop in the world as the staple food for over half of the population. The wild species of Oryza represent an enormous gene pool for genetic improvement of rice cultivars. Accurate and rapid identification of these species is critical for effective utilization of the wild rice germplasm. In this study, we developed valuable chloroplast molecular markers by comparing th...

Comparative data on the evolution of chloroplast genes are reviewed. The chloroplast genome has maintained a similar structural organization over most plant taxa so far examined. Comparisons of nucleotide sequence divergence among chloroplast genes reveals marked similarity across the plant kingdom and beyond to the cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). Estimates of rates of nucleotide substitution...

Nitrogen-limited Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is chlorotic and very deficient in chlorophyll a/b light-harvesting complexes (LHC). Rates of synthesis of photosynthetic proteins, but especially the LHC apoproteins, are reduced 10- to 40-fold. Moderately high levels of chloroplast transcripts accumulate in nitrogen-limited cells, and there is a correlation between chloroplast DNA levels and chloropl...

Chloroplast RNA is synthesized in dark-grown radish cotyledons at about one-third the rate of that in the light. The synthesis, however, continues for longer in the dark and the percentage of chloroplast RNA can approach that in light-grown tissue. Light stimulates the synthesis and accumulation of both cytoplasmic and chloroplast RNA, but shows a 4-fold greater stimulation of the chloroplast R...

the chloroplast whose genes are actually in the nucleus. One example of this is a protein (an enzyme) called "Rubisco" that is involved in carbon-fixation in the chloroplast. The Rubisco enzyme is made up of eight large protein subunits and eight small protein subunits. The genes for the large subunit are found in the chloroplast DNA, but the genes for the small subunit protein are found in the...

Polyclonal antibodies were elicited against seven of the 33 different proteins of the large subunit of the chloroplast ribosome from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Three of these proteins are synthesized in the chloroplast and four are made in the cytoplasm and imported. In western blots, six of the seven antisera are monospecific for their respective large subunit ribosomal proteins, and none of t...

The effect of chloramphenicol (CAP) on cell division and organelle ultrastructure was studied during light-induced chloroplast development in the Chrysophyte alga, Ochromonas danica. Since the growth rate of the CAP-treated cells is the same as that of the control cells for the first 12 hr in the light, CAP is presumed to be acting during that interval solely by inhibiting protein synthesis on ...

BACKGROUND Obtaining chloroplast genome sequences is important to increase the knowledge about the fundamental biology of plastids, to understand evolutionary and ecological processes in the evolution of plants, to develop biotechnological applications (e.g. plastid engineering) and to improve the efficiency of breeding schemes. Extraction of pure chloroplast DNA is required for efficient seque...

Gene expression in chloroplasts is controlled primarily through the regulation of translation. This regulation allows coordinate expression between the plastid and nuclear genomes, and is responsive to environmental conditions. Despite common ancestry with bacterial translation, chloroplast translation is more complex and involves positive regulatory mRNA elements and a host of requisite protei...

Cultured leaf disks from young spinach leaves have been used to study chloroplast DNA synthesis in relation to chloroplast growth and repli­ cation. Autoradiographs prepared from thin sections show th a t labelling throughout disks is uniform. We consider th a t cultured leaf disks serve as a model system for studies of cell expansion and chloroplast replication during the development of spinac...