On September 2nd, it was reported that Yan Zhen's team from Westlake University recently published two related papers in the academic journal "Cell", revealing the dynamic mechanism and evolutionary diversity of chloroplast protein transport, opening up new horizons for research in this field. Chloroplasts, also known as' light energy factories', are the main site for photosynthesis in plants. In this' factory ', about 3000 proteins work together and are the main force in maintaining plant life activities Yan Zhen introduced. However, the vast majority of chloroplast proteins are not synthesized by chloroplasts themselves, but are encoded and transported by the nucleus. Mastering the transport channels and dynamic mechanisms of chloroplast proteins in the internal structure of plants is like obtaining the key to unlock the "factory" of chloroplasts. However, the driving force behind protein transport is currently unclear. To solve this problem, Yan Zhen's team used peas to construct a chloroplast protein transport experimental system, capturing a moment of chloroplast protein transport in peas. Based on cryo electron microscopy images, researchers speculate that the Ycf2 FtsHi complex may play a "motor" role in the transport channel. Subsequently, Yan Zhen's team purified the Ycf2 FtsHi complex from Arabidopsis and analyzed its high-resolution structure. They fitted the high-resolution structure of the Ycf2 FtsHi complex with cryo electron microscopy images previously obtained from peas and found that they matched astonishingly. This discovery directly and strongly confirms that the Ycf2 FtsHi complex is the driver of chloroplasts, namely the 'motor' Yan Zhen said. The researchers further explored the evolutionary diversity of "motors" in different photosynthetic organisms. They found that the Ycf2 FtsHi complex is highly conserved in the green plant lineage and exhibits certain differences among different species. Mastering these mechanisms means that humans have the potential to regulate the efficiency of chloroplast protein transport, thereby optimizing photosynthetic efficiency Yan Zhen said. (New Society)