GENETIC-ENGINEERING OF THYLAKOID PROTEIN COMPLEXES BY CHLOROPLAST TRANSFORMATION IH CHLAMYDOMONAS-REINHARDTII

Chloroplast transformation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has developed into a powerful tool for studying the structure, function and assembly of thylakoid protein complexes in a eukaryotic organism. In this arti cle we review the progress that is being made in the development of pr ocedures for efficient chloroplast transformation. This focuses on the development of selectable markers and the use of Chlamydomonas mutant s, individually lacking thylakoid protein complexes, as recipients. Ch loroplast transformation has now been used to engineer all four major thylakoid protein complexes, photosystem II, photosystem I, cytochrome b(6)/f and ATP synthase. These results are discussed with an emphasis on new insights into assembly and function of these complexes in chlo roplasts as compared with their prokaryotic counterparts.