Higher plant chloroplasts import the mRNA coding for the eucaryotic translation initiation factor 4E.

Plant chloroplasts probably originate from an endosymbiosis event between a photosynthetic bacteria and a eucaryotic cell. The proper functioning of this association requires a high level of integration between the chloroplastic genome and the plant cell genome. Many chloroplastic genes have been transferred to the nucleus of the host cell and the proteins coded by these genes are imported into the chloroplast. Chloroplastic activity also regulates the expression of these genes at the transcriptional and post-transcriptional levels. The importation of nucleic acids from the host cell into the chloroplast has never been observed. This work show that the mRNA coding for the eucaryotic translation factor 4E, an essential regulator of translation, enters the chloroplast in four different plant species, and is located in the stroma. Furthermore, the localization in the chloroplast of an heterologous GFP mRNA fused to the eIF4E RNA was also observed.