Exploring the potential of plastid biology and biotechnology: Plastid Preview Meeting, Norwich, 1-2 September 2022.

Plastids are a family of organelles that likely originate from the endosymbiosis of cyanobacteria (Howe et al., 2008) and exhibit diverse morphologies and biochemical capabilities (Fig. 1). The chloroplast is the most well-studied plastid type and performs photosynthesis in plants and algae and is thus responsible for most of the food production on the planet. However, there are other important biochemical functions performed by plastids, including the synthesis and storage of some carbohydrates, pigment production, fatty acid synthesis and nitrogen and sulphur assimilation. Plants have specialised plastid types that carry out some of these functions, such as starch-storing amyloplasts and pigment-producing chromoplasts (Fig. 1).