Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Analysis of the chlorophyll biosynthetic system in a chlorophyll b-less barley mutant

  • Published:
Photosynthesis Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The chlorophyll b-less barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) mutant chlorina 2807 allelic to the well-known barley mutant chlorina f2 was studied. 5-Aminolevulinic acid at saturating concentration (40 mM) was introduced into postetiolated leaves of the mutant and its wild type, and the protochlorophyllide accumulation in the dark was measured. It was found that the activity of the enzyme system transforming 5-aminolevulinic acid into protochlorophyllide was the same in both types of plants. The activity of esterifying enzymes that catalyze attachment of phytol to chlorophyllide was analyzed by infiltration of exogenous chlorophyllides a and b into etiolated leaves. The reaction was shown to have close rates in the mutant and wild-type plants. In very early stages of greening of etiolated leaves, when the apoproteins of the light-harvesting complexes are not yet formed, appearance of chlorophyll b was clearly recorded in the wild-type plants, while in the mutant chlorina 2807 no indications of chlorophyll b were detected in any stage of greening. On the other hand, in the mutant as well as in the wild type an active reverse conversion of chlorophyll b into chlorophyll a was possible. It is concluded that (a) in the mutant chlorina 2807 the ability of the biosynthetic system to transform 5-aminolevulinic acid to chlorophyll a is fully preserved, (b) in the mutant the enzymes converting chlorophyll a into chlorophyll b are most likely absent or damaged, (c) the conversion of chlorophyll a into chlorophyll b and the reverse conversion of chlorophyll b into chlorophyll a are performed by different enzymes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anderson JM and Boardman NK (1964) Studies on the greening of darkgrown bean plants. II. Development of photochemical activity. Aust J Biol Sci 17: 93–101

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson JM, Waldron JC and Thorne SW (1978) Chlorophyllprotein complexes of spinach and barley thylakoids. Spectral characterization of six complexes resolved by an improved electrophoretic procedure. FEBS Lett 92: 227–233

    Google Scholar 

  • Apel P (1967) Photosynthesemessungen an Chlorophyllmutanten von Gerste (Lichtkurven, ‘Lichtatmung’, Starklichtempfindlichkeit). Stud biophys 5: 105–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Bassi R, Rigoni F and Giacometti GM (1990) Chlorophyll binding proteins with antenna function in higher plants and green algae. Photochem Photobiol 52: 1187–1206

    Google Scholar 

  • Beale S (1984) Biosynthesis of photosynthetic pigments. In: Baker NR and Barber J (eds) Chloroplast Biogenesis, pp 133–205. Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Bellemare G, Bartlett SG and Chua N-H (1982) Biosynthesis of chlorophyll a/b-binding polypeptides in wild type and chlorina f2 mutant of barley. J Biol Chem 257: 7762–7767

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett J (1981) Biosynthesis of the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b protein. Polypeptide turnover in darkness. Eur J Biochem 118: 61–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Benz J and Rüdiger W (1981) Chlorophyll biosynthesis: Various chlorophyllides as exogenous substrates for chlorophyll synthetase. Z Naturforsch 36c: 51–57

    Google Scholar 

  • Boardman NK (1977) Development of chloroplast structure and function. In: Trebst A and Avron M (eds) Encyclopedia of Plant Physiology, New Series, Vol 5. Photosynthesis I, pp 583–600. Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Boardman NK and Highkin HR (1966) Studies on barley mutant lacking chlorophyll b. I. Photochemical activity of isolated chloroplasts. Biochim Biophys Acta 126: 189–199

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler PJ and Kuhlbrandt W (1988) Determination of the aggregate size in detergent solution of the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-protein complex from chloroplast membranes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 85: 3797–3801

    Google Scholar 

  • Chitnis PR, Morishige DT, Nechushtai R and Thornber JP (1988) Assembly of the barley light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b proteins in barley etiochloroplasts involves processing of the precursor on thylakoids. Plant Mol Biol 11: 95–107

    Google Scholar 

  • Dainese P and Bassi R (1991) Subunit stoichiometry of the chloroplast Photosystem II antenna system and aggregation state of the component chlorophyll a/b binding proteins. J Biol Chem 266: 8136–8142

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunsmuir P, Smith SM and Bedbrook J (1983) The major chlorophyll a/b binding protein of petunia is composed of several polypeptides encoded by a number of distinct nuclear genes. J Mol Appl Genet 2: 285–300

    Google Scholar 

  • Grossman AR, Bartlett SG and Chua N-H (1980) Energy-dependent uptake of cytoplasmically synthesized polypeptides by chloroplasts. Nature (London) 285: 625–628

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison MA and Melis A (1992) Organization and stability of polypeptides associated with the chlorophyll a–b lightharvesting complex of Photosystem II. Plant Cell Physiol 33: 627–637

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison MA, Nemson JA and Melis A (1993) Assembly and composition of the chlorophyll a–b light-harvesting complex of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.): immunochemical analysis of chlorophyll b-less and chlorophyll b-deficient mutants. Photosynth Res 38: 141–151

    Google Scholar 

  • Highkin HR (1950) Chlorophyll studies on barley mutants. Plant Physiol 25: 294–306

    Google Scholar 

  • Highkin HR and Frenkel AW (1962) Studies of growth and metabolism of barley mutants lacking chlorophyll b. Plant Physiol 37: 814–820

    Google Scholar 

  • Ito H, Ohtsuka T and Tanaka A (1996) Conversion of chlorophyll b to chlorophyll a via 7-hydroxymethyl chlorophyll. J Biol Chem 271: 1475–1479

    Google Scholar 

  • Ito H, Takaichi S, Tsuji H and Tanaka A (1994) Properties of synthesis of chlorophyll a from chlorophyll b in cucumber etioplasts. J Biol Chem 269: 22034–22038

    Google Scholar 

  • Jansson S (1994) The light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-binding proteins. Biochim Biophys Acta 1194: 1–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Koski VM (1950) Chlorophyll formation in seedlings of Zea mays L. Arch Biochem 29: 339–343

    Google Scholar 

  • Machold O, Meister A, Sagromsky H, Høyer-Hansen G and von Wettstein D (1977) Composition of photosynthetic membranes of wild-type barley and chlorophyll b-less mutants. Photosynthetica 11: 200–206

    Google Scholar 

  • Morishige DT and Thornber JP (1992) Expression of genes coding for light-harvesting complex proteins of Photosystem II during chloroplast development. In: Murata N (ed) Research in Photosynthesis, Vol I, pp 319–322. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht/ Boston/ London

    Google Scholar 

  • Peter GF and Thornber JP (1991) Biochemical composition and organization of higher plant Photosystem II light-harvesting pigment proteins. J Biol Chem 266: 16745–16754

    Google Scholar 

  • Porra RJ, Schafer W, Cmiel E, Katheder I and Scheer H (1994) The derivation of the formyl-group oxygen of chlorophyll b in higher plants from molecular oxygen – achievement of high enrichment of the 7-formyl-group oxygen from 18O2 greening maize leaves. Eur J Biochem 219: 671–679

    Google Scholar 

  • Preiss S, Peter GF, Anandan S and Thornber JP (1993) The multiple pigment–proteins of the Photosystem I antenna. Photochem Photobiol 57: 152–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Preiss S and Thornber JP (1995) Stability of the apoproteins of lightharvesting complex I and II during biogenesis of thylakoids in the chlorophyll b-less barley mutant chlorina f2. Plant Physiol 107: 707–717

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudoi AB (1990) On the origin of chlorophyll b. Uspekhi sovremennoi biologii [Advances in Current Biology] 51: 34–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudoi AB, Chkanikova RA and Shlyk AA (1978) Fast-response photoregulation of protochlorophyllide biosynthesis in the greening etiolated barley leaves. Doklady Akademii nauk SSSR [Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences, USSR] 241: 1450–1453

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudoi AB, Chkanikova RA and Vezitsky AY (1987) Efficiency of terminal steps of chlorophyll pigment biosynthesis in greening etiolated leaves. Biokhimiya [Biochemistry] 52: 188–193

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudoi AB, Kogel EL and Shlyk AA (1985) Chlorophyll formation in compartmental system in postetiolated leaves: The rate constants and kinetics of transformations of pigments in individual metabolic subpools. Biofizika [Biophysics] 6: 1031–1034

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudoi AB and Vezitsky AY (1976) Dark biosynthesis of chlorophylls a and b in etiolated leaves infiltrated with exogenous chlorophyllide a. Biokhimiya [Biochemistry] 41: 91–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudoi AB, Vezitsky AY and Shlyk AA (1977) Reverse reaction of transformation of chlorophyll b into chlorophyll a in etiolated leaves infiltrated with exogenous chlorophyllide b. Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR [Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences, USSR] 234: 974–977

    Google Scholar 

  • Rudoi AB, Vezitsky AY and Shlyk AA (1982) Study of enzymatic system transforming chlorophyllide into chlorophyll in etiolated leaves, using exogenous substrates. Biokhimiya [Biochemistry] 5: 733–739

    Google Scholar 

  • Sagromsky H (1974) Zur physiologischen Bedeutung von Chlorophyll b. Biochem Physiol Pflanzen 166: 95–104

    Google Scholar 

  • Satoh K (1979) Properties of light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-protein, and Photosystem I chlorophyll a-protein, purified from digitonin extracts of spinach chloroplasts by isoelectrofocusing. Plant Cell Physiol 20: 499–512

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt G, Bartlett SG, Grossman AR, Cashmore AR and Chua N-H (1981) Biosynthetic pathways of two polypeptide subunits of the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b protein complex. J Cell Biol 91: 468–478

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoch S, Lempert U and Rüdiger W (1977) Ñber die letzten stufen der chlorophyll-biosynthese. Zwischenprodukte zwischen chlorophyllid und phytolhaltigem chlorophyll. Z Pflanzenphysiol 83: 427–436

    Google Scholar 

  • Shlyk AA (1965) Chlorophyll Metabolism in Green Plant. Nauka i Tekhnika, Minsk

    Google Scholar 

  • Shlyk AA, Rudoi AB and Vezitskii AY (1970) Immediate appearance and accumulation of chlorophyll b after a short illumination of etiolated maize seedlings. Photosynthetica 4: 68–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Somerville CR (1986) Analysis of photosynthesis with mutants of higher plants and algae. Ann Rev Plant Physiol 37: 467–507

    Google Scholar 

  • Sundqvist C (1974) The pool size of protochlorophyllide during different stages of greening of dark grown wheat leaves. Physiol Plant 30: 143–147

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornber JP and Highkin HR (1974) Composition of the photosynthetic apparatus of normal barley leaves and mutant lacking chlorophyll b. Eur J Biochem 41: 109–116

    Google Scholar 

  • Yalovsky S, Ne’eman E, Schuster G, Paulsen H, Harel E and Nechushtai R (1992) Accumulation of light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b protein in the chloroplast grana lamellae. J Biol Chem 267: 20689–20693

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Photobiology, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Akademicheskaya st. 27, Minsk, 220072, Belarus

    Arkadii B. Rudoi & Rostislav A. Shcherbakov

Authors
  1. Arkadii B. Rudoi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Rostislav A. Shcherbakov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rudoi, A.B., Shcherbakov, R.A. Analysis of the chlorophyll biosynthetic system in a chlorophyll b-less barley mutant. Photosynthesis Research 58, 71–80 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006023122582

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006023122582

Search

Navigation