Going green with every developmental stage

Abstract

Plastid biogenesis involves the import of most of the organelle proteins from the cytoplasm. While plastid homeostasis is ongoing during the lifetime of the organelle, it makes sense that the highest protein-import activity would be found in young, developing plastids during their biosynthesis. This notion was previously demonstrated experimentally1. However, the reasons underlying the high protein trafficking activity of young plastids were not known. The paper by Jarvis et al. provides perhaps the first glimpse into the mechanism of this developmental change in the efficiency of protein import into plastids.