Abstract
Chloroplasts of higher plants produce ATP with photosynthetic electron transport upon illumination. Chloroplast ATP synthase consists of multiple subunits, which are encoded in chloroplast and nucleus genomes. Tobacco chloroplast atpE gene is the second cistron of atpB operon. atpB and atpE are transcribed as a dicistronic message while the atpE gene carries alternative promoter within the atpB coding region to give a monocistronic atpE mRNA. To examine whether or not atpE can be translated from the dicistronic atpB-atpE mRNA, we carried out in vitro translation assay derived from tobacco chloroplasts. We also analyzed cis-element required for atpE translation initiation. The results will be presented.
