The photosynthetic activities of barley leaves in vivo and of thylakoids, isolated from the leaves, in vitro were studied during greening in the presence or absence of 2 × 10-4 м SAN 6706. The degree of chlorophyll bleaching increased from 32% at 24 h of greening to 60% at the final stage. Treated leaves were unable to carry out 14CO2-fixation, their fluorescence induction properties showed very limited, if any, photosystem II-activity, and the thylakoids isolated from the leaves were also inactive in mediating ferricyanide Hill reaction. The leaves, however, exhibited lightinduced quenching of fluorescence revealed by slow fluorescence induction measurements; and the thylakoids were active in mediating photosystem I-specific in vitro Mehler reaction. Thylakoid membranes of the chloroplasts isolated from treated leaves contained CP 1 and LHCP3 bands as revealed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. From these results it is concluded that i) greening in the presence of SAN 6706 leads to the formation of inactive photosystem -II units; that ii) photosystem-I per se is active in vitro, and can, possibly, mediate cyclic electron transport in vivo coupled to the formation of ATP; and that iii) the presence of xanthophyll pigments is required for the assembly of the light-harvesting complex. The experiments were repeated with the application of SAN 9789, another pyridazinone compound, and yielded practically the same results as those obtained with SAN 6706. For practical reasons, only the results obtained with SAN 6706 are demonstrated throughout this communication.