Real-time monitoring of chloroplast gene expression by a luciferase reporter: evidence for nuclear regulation of chloroplast circadian period.

ABSTRACT: Chloroplast-encoded genes, like nucleus-encoded genes, exhibit circadian expression. How the circadian clock exerts its control over chloroplast gene expression, however, is poorly understood. To facilitate the study of chloroplast circadian gene expression, we developed a codon-optimized firefly luciferase gene for the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as a real-time bioluminescence reporter and introduced it into the chloroplast genome. The bioluminescence of the reporter strain correlated well with the circadian expression pattern of the introduced gene and satisfied all three criteria for circadian rhythms. Moreover, the period of the rhythm was lengthened in per mutants, which are phototactic rhythm mutants carrying a long-period gene in their nuclear genome. These results demo

SUBMITTER: Matsuo T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1347041 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature