Post transcriptional regulation of chloroplast gene expression by nuclear encoded gene products

Abstract

Many individual chloroplast genes require the products of a collection of nuclear genes for their successful expression. These nuclear gene products apparently work with great specificity, each committed to the expression of a single chloroplast gene. We have chosen as a model nuclear mutants of Chlamydomonas affected in different stages in the expression of the chloroplast encoded Photosystem II polypeptide, D2. We have made the progress in understanding how nuclear gene products affect the translation of the D2 encoding MRNA. Two nuclear genes are required for this process which have been mapped genetically. In contrast to other examples of nuclear control of translation in the chloroplast, these nuclear gene products appear to be required either for specific stages in translation elongation or for the post-translational stabilization of the nascent D2 protein. Pseudoreversion analysis has led us to a locus which may be directly involved in D2 expression. We have made considerable progress in pursuing the molecular basis of psbd MRNA stabilization. psbD 5' UTR specific transcripts have been synthesized in vitro and used in gel mobility shift assays. UV-crosslinking studies are underway to identify the transacting factors which bind to these sequences. The continued examination of these mutants will help us to understand how nuclear gene products work in this specific case of chloroplast gene expression, and will elucidate how two distinct genomes can interact generally.