Vol.30 No.3 (2008 June): 362-366

The Transfer of Genetic Information between Organelles in Plants

Shai Dong, Yan-Ling Bai*, Hai-Jin Xu, Xiu-Ming Zhang, Ming-Qiang Qiao

(College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China)

Abstract Although mitochondrion and plastid have their own genomes, the genetic information of them is much limited, and therefore, the vast majority of the proteins they need are coded by nucleus for their construction and function. Related research has shown that there are not only interdependent in function between nucleus and organelles, but also the transfer of genetic information among them. This kind of transfer is most likely to take genetic information to new location of the cell, change the expressing of genes, etc. Therefore, investigations on the mechanisms concerning the transfer of genetic information between organelles can give important clues for a better understanding of the interactions among nucleus and cytoplasm, and evolution of eukaryotes.

Key words organelle; genetic information; transfer

Received: Decenber 6, 2007 Accepted: March 10, 2008
This work was supported by the Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Commission (No.08JCYBJC04200)
*Corresponding author. Tel: 86-22-23503340, E-mail: baiyl@nankai.edu.cn