Chloroplast development in green plant tissues: the interplay between light, hormone, and transcriptional regulation

What is it about?

Chloroplasts are essential structures found in cells that are required for photosynthesis. How chloroplasts develop is therefore fundamental to life on the planet. Light is strictly required for chloroplast formation in all angiosperms and regulates the expression of hundreds of chloroplast-related genes. But, light also modulates the levels of plant hormones, and these also control chloroplast development particularly during early stages of plant development. Certain transcription factors act downstream of both light and phytohormone signalling to regulate chloroplast development. Thus, in green tissues transcription factors, light signalling and hormone signalling form a complex network regulating the transcription of chloroplast- and photosynthesis-related genes to control the development and number of chloroplasts per cell. We use this conceptual framework to identify points of regulation that could be harnessed to modulate chloroplast abundance and increase photosynthetic efficiency of crops, and to highlight future avenues to overcome gaps in current knowledge.

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