Manipulating the Chloroplast Genome of Chlamydomonas: Present Realities and Future Prospects

Biotechnology is being applied in vitro modification and stable reintroduction of chloroplast genes in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Nicotiana tabacum by homologous recombination. We are attempting the function analyses of plastid encoded proteins involved in photosynthesis, characterization of sequences which regulate expression of plastid genes at the transcriptional and translational levels, targeted disruption of chloroplast genes and molecular analysis of processes involved in chloroplast recombination.