Recent progress on mechanisms that allocate cellular space to plastids

Abstract

Mechanisms that allocate cellular space to organelles are of fundamental importance to biology but remain poorly understood. A detailed understanding of mechanisms that allocate cellular space to plastids, such as chloroplasts, will lead to high-yielding crops with enhanced nutritional value. The HIGH PIGMENT (HP) genes in tomato contribute to regulated proteolysis and abscisic acid metabolism. The HP1 gene was the first gene reported to influence the amount of cellular space occupied by chloroplasts and chromoplasts almost 20 years ago. Recently, our knowledge of mechanisms that allocate cellular space to plastids was enhanced by new information on the influence of cell type on the amount of cellular space occupied by plastids and the identification of new genes that help to allocate cellular space to plastids. These genes encode proteins with unknown and diverse biochemical functions. Several transcription factors were recently reported to regulate the numbers and sizes of chloroplasts in fleshy fruit. If these transcription factors do not induce compensating effects on cell size, they should affect the amount of cellular space occupied by plastids. Although we can now propose more detailed models for the network that allocates cellular space to plastids, many gaps remain in our knowledge of this network and the genes targeted by this network. Nonetheless, these recent breakthroughs provide optimism for future progress in this field.