Project 3. Chloroplast Differentiation in Bundle Sheath and Mesophyll Cells of the C4 Plant Maize
Chloroplasts of maize leaves differentiate into
specific bundle sheath (BS) and the mesophyll (M) types to accommodate C4
photosynthesis. The molecular mechanisms that underpin the differentiated
functions of the two types of chloroplast remain largely unknown. Consequences
for other plastid functions and plastid gene expression are not well understood,
but are addressed in this project through a quantitative comparative proteome
analysis of purified M and BS chloroplasts. We are using different protein
separation and comparative proteomics techniques, including iTRAQ and cICAT.
Published data are available via the
Plastid Proteome Database,
with a new interface to search comparative proteomics data (ref 45).
Our collaborators Brutnell and Stern, at the Boyce Thompson Institute,
are carrying out a complementary microarray analysis on BS and M cells.
