Light‐induced changes in the lipid composition and ultrastructure of plastids from potato tubers

Abstract

Sandelius, A. S. and Liljenberg, C. 1982. Light‐induced changes in the lipid composition and ultrastructure of plastids from potato tubers. – Physiol. Plant. 56: 266–272.Amyloplasts and starch containing plastids from green tissue – amylochloroplasts – from potato tubers (Solanum tuberosum L., var. King Edward) were separated from other cell organelles by sedimentation in a discontinuous sucrose gradient. Their lipid composition was analysed with emphasis on galactolipids and phospholipids and the fatty acid compositions of these lipids. Irradiation of the tubers caused increased ratios of monogalactosyl diacylglycerol to digalactosyl diacylglycerol and of total galactolipids to total phospholipids in the plastid membranes. Furthermore, the degree of unsaturation of the fatty acids increased in all lipid classes analysed, this effect being most prominent in the galactolipids. The ultrastructural studies made on tuber tissue revealed that irradiation caused a change in starch grain size distribution concomitant with formation of membrane structures resembling grana within the envelope. In many cases prolamellar bodies and plastoglobuli were present.