Messenger RNA Processing in Spinach Chloroplasts

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The longterm goal of this research is to discover how gene expression in chloroplasts affects and is itself affected by chloroplast development and biogenesis. This goal will be approached by first studying the processing of multigenic messenger RNAs transcribed within the chloroplast. There are two main objectives to this project. First is to identify precursor and product RNAs from the ATP synthase gene cluster in spinach chloroplasts. In the course of achieving that goal, the primary transcripts from that gene cluster will be identified. The second objective is to observe the levels of these multigenic transcripts and their processing products as the chloroplast develops from its immature beginnings in the seedling stage to the fully developed state that it reaches in the mature leaf. Both of these objectives will be studied with a number of molecular biological techniques, the chief among them being Northern analysis.%%% Chloroplasts are the cell organelles where photosynthesis takes place. Chloroplasts, like the cell nucleus, have genes which direct the synthesis of proteins needed for photosynthesis. mRNA's are the intermediates between genes and proteins. There has been very little research performed on mRNA processing in chloroplasts. Results from this research will serve as the first steps in the elucidation of this complex process.*** //