Figure 1.

Multiple fates for phytol after removal from chlorophyll. During chlorophyll degradation, phytol is cleaved from the chlorin ring. Previous work has shown that this released phytol can be sequestered as phytol esters or used to synthesize tocopherols or phylloquinone. The phytyl group in phytyl diphosphate also can be recycled into chlorophyll by reaction with chlorophyllide a (not shown). Gutbrod et al. (1) use improved analytical methods to detect phytenal, suggesting that phytol can also be degraded in plants.