Translational regulations as specific traits of chloroplast gene expression

Studies of protein synthesis in the chloroplast compartment have revealed a unique combination of translational autoregulations and trans-regulations due to the delivery of a variety of nuclear factors that act post-transcriptionally. We show how these two characteristics concur to set the major step in the regulation of chloroplast gene expression at the translational level, leading to a surprisingly low sensitivity of chloroplast protein synthesis in response to extensive changes in plastome copy number and transcript concentration. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. on behalf of the Federation of European Biochemical Societies.