AP07 Schwenkert: Chaperones and TPR proteins in organellar protein import and chloroplast biogenesis

Molecular chaperones such as the heat shock proteins HSP90 and HSP70 assist during the delivery of cytosolic synthesised preproteins to organelles, i.e. chloroplasts, mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). TPR domain containing docking proteins interact with preprotein-chaperone complexes and thus mediate the initial contact with the translocon complexes. We are analysing the regulatory role of these TPR proteins in protein translocation. Moreover, we will focus on the chloroplast HSP90 machinery for which we will identify co-chaperones and client proteins.