Advancing approach and toolbox in optimization of chloroplast genetic transformation technology
Yu-xin LIU, Fan Li, Liang Gao, Zhang-li TU, Fei Zhou, Yongjun Lin
Abstract
Chloroplast is a discrete, highly structured and semi-autonomous cellular organelle. The small genome of chloroplast makes it a highly promising platform for synthetic biology. As a special means of synthetic biology, chloroplast genetic engineering shows great potential in the reconstruction of a various sophisticated metabolic pathways within the plants for specific purposes, such as improvement of crop photosynthetic capacity and plant stress resistance, or synthesis of new drugs and vaccines. However, many plant species are still of low efficiency or inability for chloroplast genetic transformation. Hence, new transformation technologies and tools are being constantly developed. In order to further expand and facilitate the application of chloroplast genetic engineering, this review summarizes the new technologies in chloroplast genetic transformation in recent years, and discusses the choice of appropriate synthetic biological elements for the construction of efficient chloroplast transformation vectors.