Chloramphenicol-induced stabilization of light-harvesting complexes in thylakoids during development

AbstractChloramphenicol treatment allows light-harvesting apoprotein accumulation in thylakoids of intermittent light plants and prevents its digestion in plants transferred to darkness after brief pre-exposure to continuous light. This suggests that under conditions where reaction center-core protein synthesis is inhibited, the light-harvesting apoproteins can be stabilized. The results support the competition hypothesis proposed to occur between reaction center polypeptides and light-harvesting apoproteins for chlorophyll, whenever the rate of chlorophyll formation relative to that of the polypeptide components is limited