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On the Inside
- Article from:
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Plant Physiology
- Article date:
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September 1, 2008
- Author:
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Copyright informationCopyright American Society of Plant Biologists Sep 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Sex Differences in Plastid DNA Integration into the Nucleus
The plastid (chloroplast) genome of higher plants has been reduced to approximately 130 genes, while its cyanobacterial ancestor is estimated to have contained more than 3,000 genes. Thus, many of the ancestral endosymbiont genes were either lost or transferred to the nucleus during evolution. Indeed, thousands of functional nuclear genes in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) are derived from the endosymbiont genome. Sheppard et al. (pp. 328-336) examine the question of whether there are sex-specific differences in the rates of plastid DNA relocation. Male gametes of most angiosperm species undergo a programmed elimination of ...