Discovery could Improve Efficiency of Molecular Factories
EAST LANSING, Mich. — The discovery of a new gene is helping researchers at Michigan State University envision more-efficient molecular factories of the future.
A team of researchers, led by Katherine Osteryoung, MSU plant biologist, announced the discovery of Clumped Chloroplasts – a new class of proteins – in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. CLMP1 plays a key role in helping chloroplasts, which carry out the life-sustaining process of photosynthesis, separate when the chloroplasts divide. The newly identified proteins are also critical in the perpetuation of chloroplasts during cell division.
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