期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2007
卷号:104
期号:43
页码:17216-17221
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0704680104
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:The biogenesis of thylakoid membranes, an indispensable event for the photoautotrophic growth of plants, requires a significant increase in the level of the unique thylakoid membrane lipid monogalactosyldiacylglycerol (MGDG), which constitutes the bulk of membrane lipids in chloroplasts. The final step in MGDG biosynthesis occurs in the plastid envelope and is catalyzed by MGDG synthase. Here we report the identification and characterization of an Arabidopsis mutant showing a complete defect in MGDG synthase 1. The mutant seeds germinated as small albinos only in the presence of sucrose. The seedlings lacked galactolipids and had disrupted photosynthetic membranes, leading to the complete impairment of photosynthetic ability and photoautotrophic growth. Moreover, invagination of the inner envelope, which is not seen in mature WT chloroplasts, was observed in the mutant, supporting an old hypothesis that envelope invagination is a major event in early chloroplast biogenesis. In addition to the defective seedling phenotype, embryo development was arrested in the mutant, although seeds with impaired embryos could germinate heterotrophically. These results demonstrate the importance of galactolipids not only in photosynthetic growth but also in embryogenesis.