The diurnal logic of the expression of the chloroplast genome in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Chloroplasts are derived from cyanobacteria and have retained a bacterial-type genome and gene expression machinery. The chloroplast genome encodes many of the core components of the photosynthetic apparatus in the thylakoid membranes. To avoid photooxidative damage and production of harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS) by incompletely assembled thylakoid protein complexes, chloroplast gene expression must be tightly regulated and co-ordinated with gene expression in the nucleus.