Development of Fatty Acid Synthesis in Greening Avena Leaves

Abstract

In etiolated Avena leaves under the light condition, the etioplast rapidly develops into the chloroplast, proliferating thylakoid membranes during 24 hour. In such a drastic membrane genesis, the synthesis of galactolipids, the main component of thylakoid membranes, markedly increased. Our pulse-chase experiments showed that the galactolipid synthesis is driven by de novo synthesis of fatty acids in developing chloroplasts(Kato et al. 1987). This paper represents the development of fatty acid synthesizing system in greening Avena leaves, in connection with the activity level of the enzymes such as ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBPC), phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC), acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC), malonyl-CoA:ACP S-malonyltransferase (MT) and acetyl- CoA:ACP S-acetyltransferase (AT), the level of acyl carrier protein (ACP) in greening Avena leaves is also examined.