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Published online
doi:10.1083/jcb.200805125
The Journal of Cell Biology, Vol. 182, No. 4, 641-646
The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525 $30.00
© Uniacke et al.
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Stress induces the assembly of RNA granules in the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii



James Uniacke and William Zerges

Biology Department, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec H4B 1R6, Canada

Correspondence to William Zerges: zerges{at}alcor.concordia.ca

Eukaryotic cells under stress repress translation and localize these messenger RNAs (mRNAs) to cytoplasmic RNA granules. We show that specific stress stimuli induce the assembly of RNA granules in an organelle with bacterial ancestry, the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. These chloroplast stress granules (cpSGs) form during oxidative stress and disassemble during recovery from stress. Like mammalian stress granules, cpSGs contain poly(A)-binding protein and the small, but not the large, ribosomal subunit. In addition, mRNAs are in continuous flux between polysomes and cpSGs during stress. Localization of cpSGs within the pyrenoid reveals that this chloroplast compartment functions in this stress response. The large subunit of ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase also assembles into cpSGs and is known to bind mRNAs during oxidative stress, raising the possibility that it plays a role in cpSG assembly. This discovery within such an organelle suggests that mRNA localization to granules during stress is a more general phenomenon than currently realized.

Abbreviations used in this paper: cpSG, chloroplast SG; DCMU, 3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea; FCCP, carbonylcyanide-p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone; LSU, large subunit of Rubisco; PABP, poly(A)-binding protein; PS II, Photosystem II; Rubisco, ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase; SG, stress granule; SSU, small subunit of Rubisco.

© 2008 Uniacke and Zerges This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.jcb.org/misc/terms.shtml). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).


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