The plastid clpP1 protease gene is essential for plant development

Hiroshi Kuroda and Pal Maliga ()
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Hiroshi Kuroda: The State University of New Jersey
Pal Maliga: The State University of New Jersey

Nature, 2003, vol. 425, issue 6953, 86-89

Abstract: Abstract Plastids of higher plants are semi-autonomous cellular organelles that have their own genome and transcription–translation machinery1. Examples of plastid functions are photosynthesis and biosynthesis of starch, amino acids, lipids and pigments2. Plastid functions are encoded in ∼120 plastid genes1 and ∼3,000 nuclear genes2,3. Although many embryo and seedling lethal nuclear genes are required for chloroplast biogenesis4,5,6, until now deletion of plastid genes either had no phenotypic consequence (8 genes), or caused a mutant phenotype but did not affect viability (13 genes)7,8,9,10. Here we identify an essential plastid gene. By using the CRE–lox site-specific recombination system11,12 we have deleted clpP1 (caseinolytic protease P1), one of the three genes (clpP1, ycf1 and ycf2) whose disruption had previously only been possible in a fraction of the 1,000–10,000 plastid genome copies in a cell7,13. Loss of the clpP1 gene product, the ClpP1 protease subunit14, results in ablation of the shoot system of tobacco plants, suggesting that ClpP1-mediated protein degradation is essential for shoot development.

Date: 2003
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DOI: 10.1038/nature01909

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