Azidoatrazine: photoaffinity label for the site of triazine herbicide action in chloroplasts.

Binding of the 4-azido analog of the herbicide atrazine to pea chloroplast membranes was compared with that of atrazine. When [(14)C]azidoatrazine was treated with 300-nanometer ultraviolet light in situ, reversibility of binding was lost in proportion to the duration of irradiation. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of chloroplast membranes irradiated in the presence of [(l4)C]-azidoatrazine indicated radioactivity in only one region, corresponding to a protein with a molecular weight of approximately 32,000. Azidoatrazine is a photoaffinity reagent for the triazine binding site in chloroplasts and serves as a label to identify this site, which may be the apoprotein of the secondary electron acceptor in photosystem II.