Site of synthesis of phosphatidic acid and diacyglycerol in spinach chloroplasts.

The enzymatic synthesis of lysophosphatidic acid, phosphatidic acid, monoacylglycerol and diacylglycerol from sn-[14C]glycerol 3-phosphate occurs in purified chloroplasts. The results indicate that: (1) the chloroplast extract contains a soluble acylase (acyl-CoA: sn-glycerol 3-phosphate acyltransferase); (2) the envelope fraction contains an acyl-CoA synthetase, a bound acylase (acyl-CoA: acyl-sn glycerol 3-phosphate acyltransferase) and a phosphatidic acid phosphatase; without chloroplast extract in the incubation medium, the envelope is unable to incorporate sn-glycerol 3-phosphate into phosphatidic acid and diacylglycerol; addition of chloroplast extract to the incubation medium induced a fast increase of the incorporation of sn-glycerol 3-phosphate into phosphatidic acid and diacylglycerol; thylakoids being unable to incorporate sn-glycerol 3-phosphate (in presence or absence of soluble chloroplast extract in the incubation medium) our results indicate that the envelope of spinach chloroplast is the site of phosphatidic acid and diacylglycerol synthesis; (3) diacylglycerol actively synthesized by the envelope is also the substrate for the first galactosylation enzyme.