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. 1989 Apr;86(8):2678–2682. doi: 10.1073/pnas.86.8.2678

Nitrogen-dependent regulation of photosynthetic gene expression

F Gerald Plumley 1,*, Gregory W Schmidt 1,†
PMCID: PMC286981  PMID: 16594026

Abstract

Nitrogen-limited Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is chlorotic and very deficient in chlorophyll a/b light-harvesting complexes (LHC). Rates of synthesis of photosynthetic proteins, but especially the LHC apoproteins, are reduced 10- to 40-fold. Moderately high levels of chloroplast transcripts accumulate in nitrogen-limited cells, and there is a correlation between chloroplast DNA levels and chloroplast mRNA abundance. In contrast, nuclear transcripts encoding LHCII and ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase small subunits are markedly reduced. Thus, nitrogen availability affects chloroplast protein synthesis by inhibition of translation and, to a lesser extent, chloroplast DNA amplification. Regulation of nuclear-encoded photosynthetic proteins by nitrogen is achieved through mechanisms affecting transcription and/or mRNA stability.

Keywords: chlorophyll; light-harvesting antenna; chloroplast; ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase; thylakoids

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