Abstract
The chloroplast is an important energy-producing organelle acting as an environmental sensor for the plant cell. The normal turnover of the entire damaged chloroplast and its specific components is required for efficient photosynthesis and other metabolic reactions under stress conditions. Nuclear-encoded proteins must be imported into the chloroplast through different membrane transport complexes, and the orderly protein import plays an important role in plant adaptive regulation. Under adverse environmental conditions, the damaged chloroplast or its specific components need to be degraded efficiently to ensure normal cell function. In this review, we discuss the molecular mechanism of protein import and degradation in the chloroplast. Specifically, quality control of chloroplast from protein import to degradation and associated regulatory pathways are discussed to better understand how plants adapt to environmental stress by fine-tuning chloroplast homeostasis, which will benefit breeding approaches to improve crop yield.
Highlights
As sessile organisms, the ability to quickly sense and adapt to their surroundings is essential for plant survival
Many previous studies have focused on photoinhibition and photoprotection mechanisms of plants growing in fluctuating environments; the turnover of chloroplast proteins is essential for maintaining efficient photosynthesis and metabolism
A comprehensive understanding of how chloroplast maintains homeostasis will provide detailed insights for plant resistance and crop improvement. In this mini-review, we first introduce the most important recent publications which revealed the molecular mechanism of chloroplast protein import and review chloroplast protein degradation processes including proteolysis, the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), the newly confirmed autophagy process, and other related pathways (Ling and Jarvis, 2016; Izumi et al, 2017; Chen et al, 2018; Ganesan et al, 2018; Kikuchi et al, 2018)
Summary
The ability to quickly sense and adapt to their surroundings is essential for plant survival. Many previous studies have focused on photoinhibition and photoprotection mechanisms of plants growing in fluctuating environments; the turnover of chloroplast proteins is essential for maintaining efficient photosynthesis and metabolism. A comprehensive understanding of how chloroplast maintains homeostasis will provide detailed insights for plant resistance and crop improvement. In this mini-review, we first introduce the most important recent publications which revealed the molecular mechanism of chloroplast protein import and review chloroplast protein degradation processes including proteolysis, the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS), the newly confirmed autophagy process, and other related pathways (Ling and Jarvis, 2016; Izumi et al, 2017; Chen et al, 2018; Ganesan et al, 2018; Kikuchi et al, 2018). We discuss biological processes related to chloroplast quality control, in order to enhance plants’ adaptability to the fluctuating environments
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