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ORGANELLE COOPERATION

More than just a powerhouse

Nature Plants volume 6, pages 5–6 (2020)Cite this article

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Three genomes must cooperate in plants — those in the nucleus, mitochondria and chloroplasts. Biparental inheritance of the nucleus and maternal inheritance of the organelles has made studying these interactions difficult. A new method allows the nucleus to be inherited paternally so the ‘black box’ of interactions can be studied.

Because of two ancient symbiotic events, plants have three compartments with genetic information: the nucleus and two organelles located in the cytoplasm, the mitochondria and chloroplasts. Mitochondria are well known as the ‘powerhouse of the cell’, and chloroplasts as the centre of photosynthesis. To some, this makes their genomes as uninteresting as the battery in a laptop, but a paper by Flood et al.1 in this issue of Nature Plants suggests that they are more like chips on the motherboard than merely the battery. Flood et al. used a particularly clever strategy to mix and match different combinations of these compartments and found that these two organelles have a significant influence on the phenotype of plants.

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Fig. 1: Traditional breeding versus haploid doubling.

References

  1. Flood, P. J. Nat. Plants https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0575-9 (2019).

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  1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Alan C. Christensen

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  1. Alan C. Christensen
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Correspondence to Alan C. Christensen.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Christensen, A.C. More than just a powerhouse. Nat. Plants 6, 5–6 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0576-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-019-0576-8

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