SecY, an integral subunit of the bacterial preprotein translocase, is encoded by a plastid genome.

Although the paradigm for the acquisition of photosynthetic organelles is the endocytosis of cyanobacteria-like progenitors by heterotrophic protists, details of this evolutionary process are unclear. The small organellar chromosomes are remnants of the larger bacterial genomes with most genes from the endosymbiont's DNA having been either relocated to the protist's nucleus or entirely lost. As a result of those gene transfers, differences exist between plastids from different algal phyla and higher plants. We report here on the retention of a secY gene in cyanelle (= plastid) DNA of the eukaryotic protist Cyanophora paradoxa. This cyanelle secY encodes a functional protein homologous to SecY of Escherichia coli, identified as a subunit of the preprotein translocase complex. Similarity of the cyanelle and E. coli SecY topology, predicted from sequence information, has been confirmed experimentally through SecY-PhoA fusion protein analysis in E. coli. Cyanelle SecY, expressed in an E. coli secY mutant, substituted for the defective prokaryotic SecY. A plastid-encoded gene for a membrane protein functioning in protein transport across plastid membranes is unprecedented in higher plants. From these results we infer that a functional homolog of the prokaryotic preprotein translocation machinery is retained in some plastids.