Protein synthesis by chloroplasts during the senescence of barley leaves

Abstract

Chloroplasts were isolated from senescent leaf segments of barley (Hordeum vulgare L. var. Mozoncillo) and assayed for protein synthesis. Protein synthesis activity of the chloroplasts greatly increased after 10–20 h of incubation of leaf segments in the dark in spite of an intense degradation of chloroplast rRNA. The rise in the activity of protein synthesis was more pronounced when kinetin was present in the incubation medium. However, as deduced from SDS‐polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of the products, different proteins were synthesized under the two conditions of incubation of the leaf segments. The activity of protein synthesis of the chloroplasts decreased during the first hours of incubation of the leaf segments in the light.Cutting and incubation in the dark of the leaf segments enhanced the synthesis of a few proteins also formed by chloroplasts in attached senescing leaves. Hormone and senescence treatments changed the type and the rate of the protein synthesized by chloroplasts, which suggests that hormones may control senescence through a modulation of the protein synthesized by the chloroplasts.