Identification of genes involved in chloroplast division by comparison of temporal transcriptomics of C. reinhardtii and A. thaliana

Project Summary

Over the course of evolution, chloroplasts have retained only a small fraction of their genes from their cyanobacterial ancestors, and most of them have been transferred to the nucleus of the ‘host cell’. All major biological processes in chloroplasts including division are orchestrated from the nucleus. In the unicellular alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, which carries a single chloroplast, division of cell is synchronized with that of chloroplast. It must be noted that photosynthetic organisms have most of their metabolic activities synchronized with diel cycle. However, in higher plants, cells carry multiple chloroplasts, and their division is decoupled from that of the cell. While the role of proteins like FtsZ, MinD, MinE, ARC6, DRP5B has been established in chloroplast division, there might be several more proteins whose roles in this process have not been identified. We propose here that by comparing the temporal diurnal transcriptomics data from C.reinhardtii and A thaliana, genes involved in chloroplast division can be identified.