4. AtJ20, AtJ8 and AtJ11
AtJ20 (DJC26, At4g13830) is a plastid J-protein containing J-domain only. J20 is able to interact with inactive and aggregated desoxyribose5-phosphate synthase (DXS), the first enzyme of the plastidic isoprenoid pathway
[5]. It acts as an adaptor that provides its substrate, damaged DXS to cpHSP70s. Thereafter, cpHSP70 can deliver the irreversible inactive DXS to the Clp protease for degradation. Indeed,
AtJ20 knock-out mutant accumulated high levels of DXS protein with reduced levels of DXS enzyme activity, while the transcription of
DXS was not changed.
j20-1,
cphsp70-1 and
cphsp70-2 mutants possess higher sensitivity to CLM, a specific DXS inhibitor, compared with that of the wild-type
[5]. Under stress, especially heat-stress conditions, J20 promotes the degradation of DXS. On the other hand, cpHSP70 and reversible DXS can interact with the HSP100 chaperone ClpB3; the latter protein can synergistically contribute to refolding DXS back to its active form
[21].
J20, J8 (AtDJC22, At1g80920) and J11 (DJC23, At4g36040) knock-out mutants were analyzed by Chen and coworkers
[22]. These mutants all showed lower photosynthetic efficiency, the destabilization of photosystem II complexes, and unbalanced the redox reactions in chloroplasts. The
AtJ8 knock-out mutant has a lighter effect on photosynthetic parameters than the
AtJ11 or
AtJ20 knock-out mutant
[22]. It was assumed that AtJ8, AtJ11 and AtJ20 possess at least partially redundant functions, but also specific functions, respectively. There are three J-proteins with small molecular masses in
Arabidopsis chloroplast, which are AtJ8, AtJ11 and AtJ20, respectively. These three J-proteins can assist HSP70 chaperone proteins to ensure the activity of Rubisco (Ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase oxygenase) by correctly folding and assembling the enzyme
[22][23]. When one of the three J-proteins is knocked out, the activity of Rubisco, which fixes carbon dioxide in photosynthesis, is negatively affected. Therefore, the ability of
atj11 or
atj20 single mutant to fix carbon dioxide will be greatly reduced with the decrease in enzyme activity. The carbon dioxide assimilation ability of the
atj8 mutant was slightly lower than that of the wild-type
[22].
5. Choloroplast J-Proteins in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
There are five chloroplast DnaJ homologs (CDJ) proteins in
Chlamydomonas, namely CDJ1 to 5. CDJ1 is a plastidic protein containing a zinc-finger domain, which localizes to the soluble matrix part, thylakoid and low-density membrane of chloroplast. High temperature only can weakly induce the expression of the
CDJ1 gene; therefore, the CDJ1 protein is only slightly increased under heat treatment. Solid experiment results showed that HSP90C and HSP70B form a complex in advance and then bind to CDJ1
[24]. The protein that interacts with both HSP70B and its cochaperone CDJ2 was identified by mass spectrometry as vesicle-induced protein (VIPP1) in plastids, which is essential for thylakoid biogenesis. Therefore, CDJ2 can specifically recognize and bind the substrate protein VIPP1 and recruit it to HSP70B, thus, participating in thylakoid membrane biogenesis
[25]. CDJ3 and CDJ4 are weakly expressed and appear to be localized to the stroma and thylakoid membranes, respectively
[26]. CDJ3 is strongly induced by light, and CDJ5 was also found to be light-inducible. The homologues of CDJ3-5 also can be found in green algae, moss and higher plants. CDJ3-5 all have special domains called bacterial-type ferredoxin domains. Since they all have redox-active Fe-S clusters, CDJ3-5 can activate ATPase activity on HSP70B through its J-domain and recruit HSP70B to participate in chloroplast Fe-S cluster biogenesis
[27]. CDJ3-5 are most similar to the Fd domain-containing DJC76 clade, including DJC76, DJC77 and DJC82 of
Arabidopsis [8]. Therefore, it is interesting to explore the function of DJC76 clade proteins, since DJA5 and DJA6 are involved in plastid Fe-S cluster biogenesis
[14]. Determining the relationship between DJC76 clade proteins and DJA5/6 requires further analysis.
6. DJC31 and DJC62
The localization of DJC31 and DJC62 is relatively special, and whether they can be localized in chloroplasts is related to the integrity of their proteins. DJC31 and DJC62 are two structurally similar J-proteins that both carry clamp-type tetratricopeptide repeat domains (TPRs) and belong to the class C type of J-protein. When
DJC31 or
DJC62 in
Arabidopsis was knocked out, the phenotype of the single mutant has little change compared with the wild-type. When both of them were knocked out, the morphology of roots, leaves, flowers and siliques were all abnormal, indicating that DJC31 and DJC62 are important for maintaining the morphology of plants
[11]. In addition,
djc31djc62 double mutant is more drought tolerant than the wild-type, and hypersensitive to ABA. Previously, DJC31 and DJC62 were predicted to localize either to the nucleus or the chloroplast
[28]. Further, chloroplast import experiments found that truncated forms of DJC31 and DJC62 could be imported, indicating that both of them are located in the chloroplast
[8]. Surprisely, Dittmer and co-authors recently discovered that both DJC31 and DJC62 are located to the endoplasmic reticulum membrane, which was validated by detecting the two proteins in isolated chloroplasts and microsomal membranes
[11]. The TPR domains of DJC31 and DJC62 share the conserved K5N9-N6-K2R6 motif with the human HSP70 and HSP90 co-chaperone TPR2 (also known as DNAJC7).
7. Plastid-Localized J-Like Proteins
Orange (
OR) was cloned from orange cauliflower mutant, melon fruit and carrot roots, which is required for carotenoid accumulation
[29][30][31]. OR is a J-like protein that lacks the J-domain and the C-terminal domain of classic J-protein, and contains a DNAJ-type zinc-finger domain
[29][30]. Plastid-localized OR is able to regulate a major rate-limiting enzyme of carotenoid biosynthesis, therefore, promoting carotenoid biosynthesis
[32]. In addition, it also regulates plastid preprotein import by interacting with Tic40 and Tic110, two key translocons for preprotein importing
[13]. A gain-of-function mutation endow OR the function of promoting chromoplast biogenesis
[33]. OR
his variant directly interacts with ACCUMULATION AND REPLICATION OF CHLOROPLASTS3 (ARC3), and the interaction interferes with the interaction of ARC3 and PARALOG of ARC6 (PARC6)
[34]. Both ARC3 and PARC6 are crucial regulators of plastid division, and their interaction is important for plastid division. Therefore, OR
his can also regulate chromoplast number. The nucleus-localized OR interacts with the transcription factor TCP14 and represses its transactivation activity, therefore, repressing chloroplast biogenesis in the etiolated cotyledons of
Arabidopsis [35]. Interestingly, OR is present in the nucleus only in etiolated tissue in darkness. When plants are exposed to light the protein relocates into fully developed chloroplasts
[35].