Discovery of a New Brake Factors in Chloroplast Development

June 30, 2026

Chloroplast development requires not only an accelerator but also a brake

A research group at the University of Miyazaki, in collaboration with the RIKEN CSRS, has discovered a new regulatory factor involved in chloroplast development. Chloroplasts are the photosynthetic organelles of plant cells, and their development is precisely regulated in response to environmental conditions through the coordinated action of both "accelerator" and "brake" factors. In this study, the researchers found that a group of structurally similar B-BOX proteins (also known as COL proteins) in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana function as brakes for chloroplast development. The researchers also demonstrated that these proteins work together with GLK proteins, which are known to act as accelerators, to regulate chloroplast development.

Further studies aimed at modifying the function of this newly identified brake factor and applying the findings to agriculturally important crops are expected to contribute to the development of high-yield crop varieties.

 

Original article

Plant Physiology　doi: 10.1093/plphys/kiag406

K. Toyooka, Y. Saito, S. Kojima, Y. Goto, M. Sato,

"Multilayered regulation of chloroplast development by single B-BOX CONSTANS-LIKE and GOLDEN2-LIKE proteins in Arabidopsis".

Contact

Kiminori Toyooka
Senior Technical Scientist
Mass Spectrometry and Microscopy Unit