Target of rapamycin signaling couples energy to oxygen sensing to modulate hypoxic gene expression in .

Plants respond to oxygen deprivation by activating the expression of a set of hypoxia-responsive genes (HRGs). The master regulator of this process is a small group of transcription factors belonging to group VII of the ethylene response factors (ERF-VIIs). ERF-VIIs are highly unstable under aerobic conditions due to the continuous oxidation of their characteristic Cys residue at the N terminus by plant cysteine oxidases (PCOs).

ARGONAUTE1 and ARGONAUTE4 Regulate Gene Expression and Hypoxia Tolerance.

In plants, hypoxia can be induced by submergence, and the lack of oxygen impairs mitochondrial respiration, thus affecting the plant's energy status. Hypoxia has major effects on gene expression; these changes induce key responses that help meet the needs of the stressed plant. However, little is known about the possible role of RNA signaling in the regulation of gene expression under limited oxygen availability.

Comparison of transplastomic Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Nicotiana tabacum expression system for the production of a bacterial endoglucanase.

The bulk production of recombinant enzymes by either prokaryotic or eukaryotic organisms might contribute to replace environmentally non-friendly chemistry-based industrial processes with enzyme-based biocatalysis, provided the cost of enzyme production is low. In this context, it is worth noting that the production of recombinant proteins by photosynthetic organisms offer both eukaryotic (nuclear) and prokaryotic (chloroplast) alternatives, along with the advantage of an autotrophic nutrition. Compared to nuclear transformation, chloroplast transformation generally allows a higher level of accumulation of the recombinant protein of interest.