Phospholipid composition of chlorophyll-free mitochondria isolated via protoplasts from oat mesophyll cells.

Mitochondria were isolated from oat primary leaves via mesophyll protoplasts and subjected to phospholipid analysis. In mesophyll cells mitochondria account for only small proportions of cellular phospholipids (in the order of 5%) and proteins (in the order of 2%). Contamination by lipids from other membranes was insignificant as indicated by the absence or very low levels of chlorophyll, galactolipids and steryl glycosides. The absence of 3-trans-hexadecenoic acid in phosphatidylglycerol from mitochondria of green cells serves an an additional criterion of purity. The phospholipid mixture extracted from these mitochondria resembles phospholipids in mitochondria from non-green tissues regarding composition as well as fatty acid profiles. Therefore, mitochondria maintain a rather constant lipid profile and in contrast to plastids do not respond at this level to differences in the physiological status of their housing cell. Palmitic acid in mitochondrial phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine is primarily localized at the C-1 position of the glycerol moiety. Two enzymatic activities so far not described in mitochondria, formation of acylgalactosyl diacylglycerol and hydrolysis of acyl-CoA, were found in the purified mitochondrial fraction.