Biogenesis of chloroplast membranes in Chlamydomonas reinhardi: Chloroplast-controlled transfer of cytoplasmic proteins to the developing chloroplast membranes as visualized by quantitative radioautography.

Abstract

The light-induced formation of the photosynthetic membranes (greening) in y-1 mutant of Chlamydomonas reinhardi requires synthesis of new proteins which become incorporated into the growing membranes. It has been shown previously (Eytan and Ohad, 1970) that proteins synthesized by both chloroplast and cytoplasmic ribosomes concur in the formation of functional photosynthetic membranes, indicating the presence of a mechanism permitting the specific transfer of membrane proteins synthesized in the cytoplasm into the chloroplast. Transfer of such proteins cannot yet be identified by the usual biochemical techniques unless they become part of the growing photosynthetic membranes. However, it is possible to follow their synthesis and translocation between the different cellular compartments by use of quantitative electron microscopic radioautography. In the present work, the radioautographic grain distribution among chloroplast, chloroplast membrane, nucleus, mitochondria, and the remainder of the cytoplasm (cytosol) was carried out following short radioactive pulse-labeling and chase during greening of dark-grown mutants in the presence or absence of protein synthesis inhibitors. The results indicate that transport of some of the proteins of cytoplasmic origin to their final location within the chloroplast is at least partially controlled by concomitant synthesis of proteins by the chloroplast ribosomes.