Chloroplast Development Protein Could Spur Biofuel Production

Scientists from Michigan State University have pinpointed a protein necessary for chloroplast development, a discovery that could ultimately lead to plant varieties designed specifically for biofuel production. Chloroplasts are organelles that convert sunlight, carbon dioxide and water into sugars and oxygen during photosynthesis.

The newly discovered protein, trigalactosyldiacylglycerol 4, or TGD4, offers insight into how plants make their own “fuels”. Mutants of Arabidopsis lacking the gene coding for TGD4 were found to accumulate oils in their leaves. “If the plant is storing oil in its leaves, there could be more oil per plant, which could make production of biofuels such as biodiesel more efficient,” said Cristoph Benning, lead author of the study. Plant oils are among the best potential sources of biofuel. They are rich in energy, easy to extract and convert. The scientists hypothesize that the protein is part of a machinery mediating the transfer of lipids between the endoplasmic reticulum and the outer chloroplast membrane.

For more information, read http://news.msu.edu/story/5625/ The article published by The Plant Cell is available at http://www.plantcell.org/cgi/content/abstract/tpc.108.061176v1