Purification of mega-complexes involved in preprotein translocation across the chloroplast envelope membranes

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24657073
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Structural biochemistry
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: NAKAI Masato 大阪大学, たんぱく質研究所, 准教授 (90222158)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 蛋白質膜透過 / 細胞内蛋白質輸送 / オルガネラ / 葉緑体 / 膜蛋白質複合体

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Elucidation of molecular mechanism of protein translocation across cell membranes is fundamentally important for cell biology. Several different type of protein translocation machineries called translocons have been so far identified and characterized. Among them, only bacterial-type SEC translocons have been extensively studied from the structural aspects simply because of some difficulty to obtain high amount of purified translocons of eukaryotic-type. In this study, we have successfully purified TIC translocon at the inner envelope membrane of chloroplast as well as its associated import motor complex.

Free Research Field

植物分子生物学