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. 1972 Jul;50(1):24–27. doi: 10.1104/pp.50.1.24

Light-stimulated Production of a Chloroplast-localized System for Protein Synthesis in Euglena gracilis1

Bonnie J Reger a,2, R M Smillie a,3, R C Fuller a,4
PMCID: PMC367309  PMID: 16658126

Abstract

Chloroplasts and proplastids isolated respectively from autotrophic and dark-adapted cells of Euglena gracilis strain Z incorporated 14C-l-leucine into protein. In each case the incorporation was inhibited by chloramphenicol (50% inhibition at about 5 μg/ml for chloroplasts and 30 μg/ml for proplastids), but not appreciably by cycloheximide at concentrations up to 200 μg/ml. Chloroplasts from autotrophic cells incorporated leucine into protein at rates of about 10 pg leucine per mg RNA in one minute, but isolated proplastids were only 5 to 10% as active. When dark-adapted cells were illuminated there was little increase in the activity of the chloroplast fraction during the first 12 hr. Between 12 and 24 hr, when there was a rapid increase in the rate of synthesis of chlorophyll, the capacity of the chloroplast fraction for protein synthesis increased markedly. Suppression of the formation of a chloroplast-localized system for protein synthesis by treating the cells with chloramphenicol and the lack of such an effect with cycloheximide suggests that certain of the proteins which form part of a functional chloroplast system for protein synthesis are themselves synthesized within the chloroplasts.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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