The understanding of algal phylogeny is being impeded by an unknown number of events of horizontal gene transfer (HGT), and primary and secondary/tertiary endosymbiosis. Through these events, previously heterotrophic eukaryotes developed photosynthesis and acquired new biochemical pathways. Acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase) is a key enzyme in the fatty acid synthesis and elongation pathways in al...

Plastids are organelles found in photosynthetic eukaryotes and are best known as sites of photosynthesis. In addition to this role, plastids manufacture and store a myriad of biomolecules, including carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids, plant hormones, and nucleotides (Buchanan and Gruissem, 2000). Sulfur and nitrogen are assimilated into biologically available forms in plastids, and antioxi...

Plastids, found in plants and some parasites, are of endosymbiotic origin. The best-characterized plastid is the plant cell chloroplast. Plastids provide essential metabolic and signaling functions, such as the photosynthetic process in chloroplasts. However, the role of plastids is not limited to production of metabolites. Plastids affect numerous aspects of plant growth and development throug...

Individual plastids of vascular plants have generally been considered to be discrete autonomous entities that do not directly communicate with each other. However, in transgenic plants in which the plastid stroma was labeled with green fluorescent protein (GFP), thin tubular projections emanated from individual plastids and sometimes connected to other plastids. Flow of GFP between interconnect...

The Glaucocystophyta (e.g., Cyanophora paradoxa) form a morphologically distinct group of photosynthetic protists that is primarily distinguished by its cyanelles (= plastids). To elucidate their evolutionary relationships, we determined nuclear-encoded small-subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) coding regions for four taxa classified in the Glaucocystophyta (C. paradoxa, Glaucocystis nostochinearu...

Chloroplasts were once free-living cyanobacteria that became endosymbionts, but the genomes of contemporary plastids encode only approximately 5-10% as many genes as those of their free-living cousins, indicating that many genes were either lost from plastids or transferred to the nucleus during the course of plant evolution. Previous estimates have suggested that between 800 and perhaps as man...

A comprehensive understanding of the origin and spread of plastids remains an important yet elusive goal in the field of eukaryotic evolution. Combined with the discovery of new photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic protist lineages, the results of recent taxonomically broad phylogenomic studies suggest that a re-shuffling of higher-level eukaryote systematics is in order. Consequently, new mod...

The nongreen plastids, such as etioplasts, chromoplasts, etc., as well as chloroplasts, are all derived from proplastids in the meristem. To date, the Min system members in plants have been identified as regulators of FtsZ-ring placement, which are essential for the symmetrical division of chloroplasts. However, the regulation of FtsZ-ring placement in nongreen plastids is poorly understood. In...

The light-harvesting complex (LHC) is an essential component in light energy capture and transduction to facilitate downstream photosynthetic reactions in plant and algal chloroplasts. The unicellular dinoflagellate alga Symbiodinium is an endosymbiont of cnidarian animals, including corals and sea anemones, and provides carbohydrates generated through photosynthesis to host animals. Although S...

Chromalveolates are a diverse group of protists that include many ecologically and medically relevant organisms such as diatoms and apicomplexan parasites. They possess plastids generally surrounded by four membranes, which evolved by engulfment of a red alga. Today, most plastid proteins must be imported, but many aspects of protein import into complex plastids are still cryptic. In particular...