Co-Authors:
Holland, N., Department of Plant Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
Belkind, A., Department of Plant Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
Holland, D., Department of Fruit-tree Breeding, ARO Volcani Center, Beit Dagan, Israel
Pick, U., Department of Biochemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
Edelman, M., Department of Plant Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel
Abstract:
Plastid chaperonin 60 (cpn60) is a chloroplast protein, presumed to assist in assembly and folding of plastid proteins. Although molecular chaperones often accumulate significantly in response to stress, this has never been demonstrated for cpn60. In this study, the accumulation of cpn60 in Nicotiana seedlings during their development was followed under different stress conditions. It was found that cpn60 accumulates markedly in developing seedlings in response to tentoxin and several other (but not all) stresses. Cpn60 accumulates only during a narrow period of seedling development. It is proposed that cpn60 accumulation under stress is developmentally regulated.