Genetic engineering of plant chloroplasts

Novel chimeric constructions and methods for their use are provided for expression of exogenous genes in a plant chloroplast. Particularly, expression is achieved by the use of a chloroplast or bacterial 5\u27 untranslated region in the expression cassette. The expression cassette may be integrated into the chloroplast genome by the use of chloroplast DNA flanking sequences, or may replicate autonomously if provided with a chloroplast origin of replication. Plants and cells containing the transformed chloroplasts are also provided. The constructs may be used with both monocotyledenous and dicotyledenous chloroplasts