Chloroplast biogenesis. Detection of divinyl protochlorophyllide in higher plants.

It is shown that the protochlorophyllide pool of etiolated higher plants is made up of both monovinyl and divinyl protochlorophyllide. Although the two pigments exhibited similar emission maxima, they were distinguishable by their Soret excitation maxima, which were found at 436 to 437 and 443 to 444 nm, respectively, in ether at 77 K. The two pigments were partially separated on thin layers of polyethylene. They were shown to be accompanied by two unknown fluorescent compounds. The latter were designated compound (E451 F626) and compound (E453 F640) where E refers to the Soret excitation maxima and F to the fluorescence emission maxima of the two unknown compounds. Furthermore, it was shown under several different growth conditions that divinyl protochlorophyllide constituted the major component of the protochlorophyllide pool.