Abstract
Chloroplasts provide energy for all plants by producing sugar during photosynthesis. To adapt to various environmental and developmental cues, plants have developed specific strategies to control chloroplast homeostasis in plant cells, including chloroplast degradation during leaf senescence and the transition of chloroplasts into other types of plastids during the day-night cycle. In recent years, autophagy has emerged as an essential mechanism for selective degradation of chloroplast materials (also known as chlorophagy) in the vacuole. Different types of membrane structures have been implicated to involve in the delivery of distinct chloroplast contents. Here we provide a current overview on chlorophagy and discuss the possible chloroplast receptors and upstream signals in this process.
Introduction
The chloroplast, a well-known plastid found in all photosynthetic plant cells, is the central organelle providing plants with foods and energy in the form of sugar or starch by photosynthesis (). Chloroplast turnover plays a critical role in plastid transition (e.g., proplastid to chloroplast) and nutrient mobilization (e.g., carbon and nitrogen) (Siqueira et al., 2018). Upon different stress conditions, chloroplasts may be damaged and produce toxic ROS or stress signals which are detrimental to the plant growth. To cope with a variety of internal or external stresses, plants carry out leaf senescence via selective degradation of chloroplasts to avoid the accumulation of toxic ROS, thus placing a significance of efficient chloroplast turnover under stress conditions (Xie et al., 2015; ; ; ; Soto-Burgos et al., 2018). Recent evidence suggests that chloroplast materials are sequestered into multiple types of subcellular structures for their delivery into the lytic vacuole. Novel insights into our understanding of chloroplast turnover have been obtained by recent studies on the relationship between chloroplast degradation and autophagy, a self-eating process conserved in all eukaryotic cells (). The accelerated leaf senescence observed in most autophagy-related (ATG) mutants suggests that autophagy might function as a strategy for carbon and nitrogen remobilization to the sink tissues by facilitating chloroplast degradation in the source tissues.
Three types of autophagy have been defined so far, including chaperone-mediated autophagy, macroautophagy and microautophagy (). Chaperone-mediated autophagy, which depends on chaperone HSC70 and co-chaperones, has been reported in mamalian cells but not in yeast and plants (). Macroautophagy occurs with the formation of a unique double membrane structure termed an autophagosome for the delivery of the cargos into the lysosomes/vacuole, and utilizes molecular machinery termed as ATG genes to generate the autophagosome. During autophagosome formation, an isolation membrane, named phagophore, engulfs and encloses the cargos to become a double membrane structure (). By contrast, during microautophagy, cargos are directly evaginated into the vacuole lumen by the vacuole membrane. Of note, microautophagy can be either ATG-dependent or ATG-independent (; ). These different types of autophagy have been implicated in cargo selectivity to facilitate the bulk or specific degradation of the target cargos under different conditions. In plant cells, excellent reviews have implicated that both macroautophagy and microautophagy pathways contribute to chloroplast degradation, and exhibit cargo specificity under different types of conditions (e.g., leaf senescence, carbon starvation or high light stress) by forming various types of structures (Xie et al., 2015; ; ; ; Soto-Burgos et al., 2018). Here, we aim to compare these different pathways for the selective degradation of chloroplasts (here termed as chlorophagy), with an emphasis on the possible chloroplast receptors and related signals in this process.
Macroautophagy-Like Degradation of Chloroplasts
A macroautophagy-like process for either partial or whole chloroplast degradation utilizes the formation of autophagosomal structures and requires ATG proteins (Wada et al., 2009). Among these ATG proteins, ATG8 is widely used as an autophagosomal marker to label the autophagosomal structures (Yoshimoto et al., 2004; ; Zhuang et al., 2013, 2017, 2018; Spitzer et al., 2015). So far, several types of macroautophagy-related structures have been reported, including the Rubisco-containing body (RCB) (), the ATI1-GFP Labels Plastid-Associated Body (ATI-PS body) (), and small starch granule-like structures (SSTG) (Wang Y. et al., 2013; Figure 1).
FIGURE 1
RCB Pathway
The first observation of a macroautophagy-like process for chloroplast degradation came from the detection of Rubisco in small spherical bodies (around 1 μm) in both the cytoplasm and vacuole in wheat leaves, subsequently referred as RCBs (
It appears that the formation of RCBs is closely related to the extending stromule (Figure 1). Intriguingly, in the autophagy defective mutant atg5, many stromules are labeled by stroma-targeted GFP, suggesting that RCBs are released from the extending stromules (
ATI-PS Body Pathway
Another type of autophagy-related degradation structure with a size around 1 μm, is termed the ATI-PS body, which is mediated by the ATI proteins (
SSTG Pathway
Starch granules, which are wildly deposited in the chloroplast, serve as an essential carbon reservoir by converting starch into sugar (
Whole Chloroplast Pathway
Previous study has shown that whole chloroplasts are delivered to vacuoles in individually darkened leaves which display accelerated senescence due to sugar starvation (Wada et al., 2009). A recent study has also showed that whole chloroplasts can be targeted for degradation by autophagy upon exposure to UV light (
Microautophagy-Like Degradation of Chloroplasts
In comparison to macroautophagy, microautophagy mediates the degradation of chloroplast by direct invagination of the chloroplast contents via the vacuole membrane (Figure 1). A recent study showed that high-intensity light (HL) will trigger chloroplast envelope damage and lead to chloroplast swelling (
Other studies have also reported other types of structures for the execution of chloroplast degradation in a microautophagy-like manner, although they were not initially defined as a microautophagy-like process. For example, senescence-associated vacuoles (SAVs), which are characterized by a senescence-induced cysteine protease Senescence-associated gene 12 (SAG12), were identified as a distinct type of lytic compartment during leaf senescence (Otegui et al., 2005). SAVs display similar characteristics to the lytic vacuole as they are stained by LysoTracker red or neutral red, although they lack the tonoplast marker γ-TIP (Otegui et al., 2005). Another study showed that isolated SAVs contain stromal proteins including Rubisco and glutamine synthetase, but lack thylakoid proteins (
Chlorophagy-Related Membrane Receptors in Plants
A critical question in regarding to chlorophagy is how selectivity for chloroplast contents is executed during this process. Specific autophagic receptors are known to function in different types of autophagy, such as mitophagy, pexophagy and ER-phagy (Zaffagnini and Martens, 2016). The organelle components are recognized by autophagic receptors for docking to the autophagosomal structure or the vacuole membrane. So far, the autophagic receptors identified usually contain a canonical AIM, and a specific cargo interacting domain, and are either ubiquitin-dependent or ubiquitin-independent (Zaffagnini and Martens, 2016).
However, with respect to the chloroplast being specific for plant cells, it is not surprising that plant-unique receptors might be involved in chlorophagy. ATI1/2 represents a type of plant-specific receptor for chlorophagy which interacts with ATG8 upon sugar starvation (
In addition to ATI1/2, there are no proteins on the plant chloroplast surface that have been experimentally tested to have a similar function during chlorophagy. Using a Bioinformatic tool for prediction of proteins that may interact with ATG8 (
Table 1
| Name | Gene | ATG8-interacting motif | Position from (aa) | Position to (aa) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Toc33 | At1g02280 | EFFGKL | 24 | 29 |
| Toc34 | At5g05000 | REWIGI | 8 | 13 |
| NLFNKI | 237 | 242 | ||
| Toc64/OEP64 | At3g17970 | NLWVLL | 7 | 12 |
| Toc75I | At1g35860 | YSFANV | 55 | 60 |
| Toc75III | At3g4674 | GMFEKV | 223 | 228 |
| Toc75-IV | At4g09080 | / | / | / |
| Toc75-V/OEP80 | At5g19620 | / | / | / |
| Toc159 | At4g02510 | GEFEPV | 286 | 291 |
| KTYASV | 23 | 28 | ||
| YRYRYL | 1265 | 1270 | ||
| SIYKSI | 1510 | 1515 | ||
| OEP7 | At3g52420 | LGWLAI | 19 | 24 |
| OEP9 | At1g16000 | / | / | / |
| OEP61 | At5g21990 | ADFARI | 24 | 29 |
| OEP21A | At1g20816 | EMFEKV | 138 | 143 |
| OEP21B | At1g76405 | EMFDKV | 138 | 143 |
| OEP24A | At1g45170 | PSFNGL | 43 | 48 |
| PGFFII | 55 | 60 | ||
| LKYTYV | 126 | 131 | ||
| OEP24B | At5g42960 | GSFI V | 57 | 62 |
| OEP37 | At2g43950 | LGWASL | 298 | 303 |
| PDV1 | At5g53280 | PGYVFI | 62 | 67 |
| PDV2 | At2g16070 | KDFEVL | 130 | 135 |
| Cytochromeb5 | At1g26340 | DCWVVI | 21 | 26 |
| KQYWVV | 112 | 117 | ||
| / | At4g16070 | DSWTGI | 412 | 417 |
| / | At4g27610 | PNWILI | 22 | 27 |
| / | At5g11250 | FSYDAL | 481 | 486 |
| IGFFTL | 14 | 19 | ||
| RDFDGL | 234 | 239 | ||
| IIYSGL | 1162 | 1167 | ||
| TGD4 | AT3g06960 | PSFSPI | 64 | 69 |
| AVWPGL | 193 | 198 |
Predicted chloroplast outer membrane proteins containing the ATG8-interacting motif in Arabidopsis.
∗The order of the predicted motifs are based on the score obtained on the iLIR web tool (http://repeat.biol.ucy.ac.cy/iLIR/). aa, amino acid.
FIGURE 2

Post-modification on the TOC complex. Upon exposure to different conditions, two types of modifications occur on the TOC complex, including phosphorylation (orange color) and ubiquitination (yellow color).
Possible Signals and Post-Translational Modification for the Chloroplast Proteins During Chlorophagy
Although chlorophagy is highly induced by various stress conditions, the molecular signals for chlorophagy activation remain unknown. Notably, RCB formation requires stromule formation, which is highly inducible under starvation and stress conditions (
In addition to phosphorylation, another type of essential post-translational modification, ubiquitination, might provide the specificity for the selection of chloroplast cargos. Emerging evidence from both yeast and mammalian cells supports a close interplay between ubiquitination and autophagy (Shaid et al., 2013). In plants, it is well known that ubiquitination plays a critical role in chloroplast biogenesis during plastid developmental transitions (e.g., proplastid to chloroplast in seed germination). In a recent study, it was reported that during germination, the DELLA proteins promote TOC159 degradation via ubiquitination to modulate proplastid to chloroplast transition during early plant development (Shanmugabalaji et al., 2018). Although it is claimed that ubiquitinated TOC159 is degraded via the proteasome pathway, whether ubiquitinated TOC159 may be targeted by chlorophagy awaits to be determined. Of note, TOC159 has previously been identified as a substrate of another E3 ligase SP1, which is distributed on the outer membrane of the chloroplast to regulate chloroplast biogenesis (
Recently, in a screening for a suppressor of fc2-triggered chloroplast degradation, a E3 ligase PLANT U-BOX 4 (PUB4) was identified (Woodson et al., 2015). It was implied that PUB4 functions in chloroplast turnover via ubiquitination of the chloroplast proteins during dark-to-light transitions against ROS. Of note, loss-of-function of the chloroplast protein import machinery (TOC33 and TOC159), also suppresses fc2-triggered chloroplast degradation, implying a coordination between the chloroplast import machinery and degradation. It appears that a pub4 mutant exhibits less sensitivity to carbon starvation than the atg mutant, thus the authors claimed that the PUB4-mediated chloroplast degradation is likely to be independent of autophagy. However, during the PUB4-dependent chloroplast degradation process, it was observed that the damaged chloroplast directly fuses with a globular vacuole, which is quite similar to the microautophagy pathway through direct vacuolar invagination. It should be pointed out that the ATG machinery is dispensable during microautophagy and diverse molecular machineries are identified in other species. For instance, the ESCRT machinery but not the ATG machinery has been demonstrated to participate in the incorporation of cytoplasmic proteins into the vacuole (
Perspective
Chloroplast homeostasis is critical for efficient nutrient recycling and remobilization. A significant role for autophagy in senescent leaves is to avoid the accumulation of toxic products from the chloroplast by removing the damaged or excessive chloroplast contents. For instance, chloroplasts produce ROS and stress hormones (e.g., salicylic acid and ABA precursor), both of which can alter nuclear gene expression and accelerate leaf senescence (Yoshimoto et al., 2009; Schippers et al., 2015). Thus, degradation of chloroplasts by autophagy may promote cell survival, and contribute to the natural turnover of aging chloroplasts to overcome early leaf senescence and cell death. However, so far, little is known about how chlorophagy is regulated and how the selectivity of chloroplast materials is achieved. We anticipate that more efforts will be put forward in future toward the identification of novel chloroplast regulators to link with the ATG machinery. In particular, identification of the distinct chlorophagy receptors for different pathways as well as their interaction network should provide more insights into how these different pathways are coordinated for chloroplast turnover. In addition, although previous studies visualizing chlorophagy-related structures have mainly relied on 2D transmission electron microscopy images or confocal microscopy imaging, details on the intermediate structures are still missing. Outstanding questions are as follows: Why are there so many types of pathways/structures and are they related? What happens if a pathway/structure is inhibited? How are vesicles initiated within the double-membrane chloroplast (e.g., ATI-PS)? How does the outer membrane of chloroplast fuse with the vacuole? Given the complexity of chloroplast morphology, a combination of advanced techniques such as 3D electron microscopy and dynamic imaging should provide more insights into chlorophagy at the cellular level in the future.
Statements
Author contributions
XZ designed the concept and the organization of the manuscript. XZ and LJ wrote and edited the manuscript.
Funding
This work was supported by Grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31670179 and 91854201), the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (G-CUHK403/17, G-CUHK404/18, CUHK14130716, CUHK14102417, 14100818, C4011-14R, C4012-16E, C4002-17G, R4005-18F, and AoE/M-05/12) and CUHK Research Committee.
Acknowledgments
We apologize to researchers whose work has not been included in this manuscript owing to space limit.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
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Summary
Keywords
chlorophagy, autophagy, vacuole, chloroplast, chloroplast receptor
Citation
Zhuang X and Jiang L (2019) Chloroplast Degradation: Multiple Routes Into the Vacuole. Front. Plant Sci. 10:359. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.00359
Received
16 December 2018
Accepted
07 March 2019
Published
26 March 2019
Volume
10 - 2019
Edited by
Yuji Moriyasu, Saitama University, Japan
Reviewed by
Marinus Pilon, Colorado State University, United States; Judy Brusslan, California State University Long Beach, United States
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Copyright
© 2019 Zhuang and Jiang.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Xiaohong Zhuang, xhzhuang@cuhk.edu.hk
This article was submitted to Plant Cell Biology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Plant Science
Disclaimer
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