Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2004

Department

Biology

Abstract

The members of the Toc159 family of GTPases act as the primary receptors for the import of nucleus-encoded preproteins into plastids. Toc159, the most abundant member of this family in chloroplasts, is required for chloroplast biogenesis (Bauer, J., K. Chen, A. Hiltbrunner, E. Wehrli, M. Eugster, D. Schnell, and F. Kesller, 2000, Nature, 403: 203-207) and has been shown to covalently cross-link to bound preproteins at the chloroplast surface (Ma, Y., A. Kouranov, S. LaSala, and D.J. Schnell, 1996, J. Cell Biol. 134: 1-13; Perry, S.E., and K. Keegstra, 1994, Plant Cell. 6: 93-105). These reports led to the hypothesis that Toc159 functions as a selective import receptor for preproteins that are required for chloroplast development. In this report, we provide evidence that Toc159 is required for the import of several highly expressed photosynthetic preproteins in vivo. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the cytoplasmic and recombinant forms of soluble Toc159 bind directly and selectively to the transit peptides of these representative photosynthetic preproteins, but not representative constitutively expressed plastid preproteins. These data support the function of Toc159 as a selective import receptor for the targeting of a set of preproteins required for chloroplast biogenesis.

Comments

This article was originally published in Journal of Cell Biology, 165(3): 323-334. © 2004 Rockefeller University Press

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