Chloroplast Fatty Acid transformations in nitrogen-deficient and senescent tissues.

The fatty acids of plastids from several types of mineral-deficient and senescent tissues were analyzed. Incorporation of acetate into long-chain fatty acids of leaf tissue and of plastids from nitrogen-deficient and normal plants was determined. In general, the senescent and nitrogen-deficient chloroplasts contained a higher ratio of saturates to unsaturates than did plastids from younger tissues and from tissues grown on a complete nutrient.Nitrogen-deficient leaf tissue and plastids were capable of rapidly incorporating acetate into some of the fatty acids, especially palmitic and oleic acids. However, the comparative rate of acetate incorporation into linolenic acid in nitrogen-deficient chlorophyllous tissue was less than in tissue grown on a complete nutrient. With the addition of UDP-glucose to a reaction mixture containing added cofactors for noncyclic photosynthetic phosphorylation the relative incorporation of acetate into linolenate as compared to palmitate was increased in both the nitrogen-deficient and normal leaf tissue. This would indicate that nitrogen-deficient tissues have the enzymic systems for forming long-chain fatty acids but that the reduced photosynthesis limits the amount of precursors for the formation of lipids, especially galactolipids. However, nothing is known about the rate of fatty acid degradation under these conditions.