Organelle and nucleus interdependence

These are three practicals which can be carried out together as one or independently. It focuses on chloroplast biology and uses Arabidopsis. It visualises (1) a genetic defect (arc6 mutant) in chloroplast division and (2) a change in a nuclear reporter gene expression (pLHCB::GUS) when chloroplast translation is inhibited. Lastly (3), a bioinformatic exercise asks students to explore the origin, from cyanobacteria, through endosymbiosis, of a higher plant chloroplast division gene, ARC6.