Chloroplast Biotechnology for Crop Improvement

Photosynthesis is a key process that has enabled life on Earth as we know it today. The chloroplast is the cellular compartment where photosynthesis takes place and is an important target for crop improvement through attempts to harness its full capacity. In plants, chloroplasts, together with related organelles commonly known as plastids, are responsible for the synthesis of diverse metabolites essential for plant function and with important medical and biotechnological interest. Thus, plastids are important targets for crop improvement. Chloroplasts contain their own DNA, in which gene expression is regulated predominantly at the post-transcriptional level. Recently, substantial advances have occurred in understanding the mechanisms behind plastid function, with important implications for plant improvement, not only for photosynthesis but also for biosynthesis of diverse and important metabolites from the chloroplast. Despite improvements in knowledge and technology, the manipulation of plastids as a resource for plant improvement and the production of important compounds remains a key target to increase crop productivity and biotechnological applications.

The aim of this Research Topic is to collect recent advances concerning the chloroplast’s role in improving plant function and its potential in biotechnology applications. Additionally, this Research Topic should facilitate the cooperation of researchers from different disciplines such as genetics, cell biology, pathology, microbiology, and synthetic biology, to exchange knowledge with the common goal of achieving chloroplast improvement.

We welcome all types of articles (original research, methods, opinions, reviews, and mini-reviews) on chloroplast biology for understanding crop improvement and plant biotechnology.

Topics to be covered include:

Chloroplast metabolism:
• Using chloroplasts to sequester novel products
• Improving nutritional value of plants by engineering chloroplast metabolism
Plastid Biotechnology:
• Editing plastid genome, plastid transformation, plastid translation, and plastid metabolic engineering
• Plastid synthetic biology
• Identification of new vectors and selection markers
• Targeting nuclear-encoded gene products to the plastid
Chloroplast improvement:
• Improving chloroplast function ie. reducing costs of photorespiration, improving CO2 supply, effects on yield
• Target pathways for improving photosynthesis