Page 225 - The Biochemistry of Inorganic Polyphosphates

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Changes in the role of polyphosphates 209
2003). The encoded protein of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Kasai et al., 2002) possesses
a putative chloroplast-targeting signal at its NH 2 -terminus and can be translocated into
chloroplasts. The presence of ppGpp synthase–degradase activities in eukaryotic organ-
isms suggests that the eubacterial stringent control mediated by ppGpp and tightly bound
with PolyP has been conserved during the evolution of chloroplasts from photosynthetic
bacterial symbiont.
It is not improbable that further investigation of PolyP metabolism in mitochondria
and chloroplasts would reveal novel features of similarity with eubacteria in favour of the
endosymbiotic theory of the origin of eukaryotes.
In general, investigations of the metabolism of polyphosphates in living organisms
at different stages of evolution are of great importance for progress in evolutionary
biochemistry.