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. 1975 Mar;55(3):485–490. doi: 10.1104/pp.55.3.485

Protoheme Turnover and Chlorophyll Synthesis in Greening Barley Tissue 1

Paul A Castelfranco a,2, Owen T G Jones a
PMCID: PMC541643  PMID: 16659107

Abstract

Studies in which 14C-labeled precursors were fed to etiolated barley leaves (Hordeum vulgare L. var. Proctor) yielded chlorophyll and protoheme having similar specific radioactivities. These findings indicate: (a) there appears to be a rapid turnover of protoheme in the absence of net synthesis; (b) both pigments probably originate from a single 5-aminolevulinic acid pool; (c) the efficient utilization of glutamate-1-14C and the relatively poor utilization of glycine-2-14C suggest that 5-aminolevulinic acid is probably synthesized by a pathway other than 5-aminolevulinic acid synthetase (succinyl CoA-glycine succinyltransferase) in agreement with previously published work; (d) protoheme turnover appears to be faster under conditions which allow for rapid chlorophyll accumulation; (e) difference spectra indicate that mitochondrial cytochromes make a relatively minor contribution to the total heme in barley leaves. These findings are discussed in the light of current knowledge about tetrapyrrole regulation in photosynthetic organisms.

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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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