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Mechanism and Significance of Chlorophyll Breakdown

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Abstract

Chlorophyll breakdown is the most obvious sign of leaf senescence and fruit ripening. A multistep pathway has been elucidated in recent years that can be divided into two major parts. In the first phase, which commonly is active in higher plants, chlorophyll is converted via several photoreactive intermediates to a primary colorless breakdown product within the chloroplast. The second part of chlorophyll breakdown takes place in the cytosol and the vacuole. During this phase, the primary colorless intermediate is modified in largely species-specific reactions to a number of similar, yet structurally different, linear tetrapyrrolic products that finally are stored within the vacuole of senescing cells. To date, most of the biochemical reactions of the first phase of chlorophyll breakdown have been elucidated and genes have been identified. By contrast, mechanisms of catabolite transport and modification during the second phase are largely unknown. This review summarizes the current knowledge on the biochemical reactions involved in chlorophyll breakdown, with a special focus on the second-phase reactions and the fate of by-products that are released from chlorophyll during its breakdown.

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Acknowledgments

This work on chlorophyll breakdown was financially supported by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation, the National Center of Competence in Research Plant Survival, a research program of the Swiss National Science Foundation, and CropLife, a European FP7 Marie-Curie Initial Training Network project.

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  1. Institute of Plant Biology, University of Zurich, Zollikerstrasse 107, 8008, Zurich, Switzerland

    Bastien Christ & Stefan Hörtensteiner

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  1. Bastien Christ
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  2. Stefan Hörtensteiner
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Correspondence to Stefan Hörtensteiner.

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Christ, B., Hörtensteiner, S. Mechanism and Significance of Chlorophyll Breakdown. J Plant Growth Regul 33, 4–20 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-013-9392-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-013-9392-y

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