Messenger RNA Processing in Spinach Chloroplasts

本研究的长期目标是发现叶绿体中的基因表达如何影响叶绿体的发育和生物发生，以及叶绿体本身受叶绿体发育和生物发生的影响。这一目标将通过首先研究叶绿体内转录的多基因信使rna的加工来实现。这个项目有两个主要目标。首先是鉴定菠菜叶绿体中ATP合酶基因簇的前体和产物rna。在实现这一目标的过程中，该基因簇的主要转录本将被识别。第二个目标是观察这些多基因转录物及其加工产物的水平，叶绿体从幼苗阶段的不成熟开始发育到成熟叶片的完全发育状态。这两个目标都将通过一些分子生物学技术来研究，其中主要是北方分析。叶绿体是进行光合作用的细胞器。叶绿体和细胞核一样，拥有指导光合作用所需蛋白质合成的基因。信使rna是基因和蛋白质之间的中间产物。关于叶绿体中mRNA加工的研究很少。这项研究的结果将作为阐明这一复杂过程的第一步。*** //

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.*** //