Genetics of plant organelles: Plastid and mitochondrial genomes

Abstract

Plant organelles like chloroplasts and mitochondria are essential organelles serving critical functions like photosynthesis and respiration, respectively, in plants. While most of the processes and the components required by the functioning of these organelles are contributed by nuclear DNA, they have few of their own components encoded by their respective genome. Mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes give a real insight into the evolution of land plants, as evident by several studies. Few studies have successfully conducted gene transfer technology into these organelles’ genomes. Although extensive research on plant organelle genome is yet to be done, recent research has shown the probability of these organelles as a target of genome engineering. From targeting individual genes of their genome to incorporating new genes from other species, they hold promises to produce improved traits. Packaging of their genome, which varies significantly in various hierarchies of land and primitive plants, has also been studied in few plant species. This chapter summarizes the current studies and findings in the study of the organellar genome concerning their structure, organization, distribution, regulatory mechanism, and gene transfer technologies. This chapter provides an updated account of the evolution of these organelle genomes.