COMPARATIVE INVESTIGATION OF THE APPEARANCE OF PRIMARY CHLOROPHYLLIDEFORMS IN ETIOLATED LEAVES, PROLAMELLAR BODIES AND PROTHYLAKOIDS

A comparative investigation of the first steps of chlorophyllide forma tion from protochlorophyllide in the etiolated leaves, prolamellar bod ies and prothylakoids was performed by measuring fluorescence emission spectra. It was shown that the formation of the first fluorescent chl orophyllide forms from non-fluorescent intermediates is a complex proc ess including several dark reactions with different temperature depend encies. When the temperature of samples which had been illuminated at 77 K was increased to 190 K, four primary chlorophyllide forms were fo und by Gaussian deconvolution of the 77 K emission spectra. They had f luorescence emission maxima at 690, 696, 684 and 706 nm, respectively. Two new forms of chlorophyllide - Chlide690 and Chlide706 - were foun d in addition to the major known forms. A prolonged exposure to 190 K as well as rise of the temperature to 253 K led to a disappearance of Chlide690. The fate of this form is not clear. Chlide696 and Chlide706 were transformed into Chld673 and Chld684, respectively, during the p rolonged dark exposure at 253 K. The existence of two pathways of nati ve short wavelength chlorophyllide forms formation was proposed with d ifferent temperature dependencies.