Sunday, March 27, 2011

Yellow-in-the-Dark Mutants of Chlamydomonas Lack the CHLL Subunit of Light-Independent Protochlorophyllide Reductase

A key step in the production of chlorophyll is the reduction of a double bond of an intermediate structure. This can be done by one of two ways; with light in angiosperms or without light in gymnosperms, cyanobacteria, etc. With light, the reaction can occur via a reductase. However, without light, the reaction requires the use of certain genes. In the bacteria Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the genes ChlL, ChlN and ChlB and certain loci, y, must be present. The products of these genes are thought to be subunits of the enzyme Light-Independent Protochlorophyllide Reductase, which catalyzes the reduction of the double bond mentioned earlier. When reacted with light, it was found that the ChlL protein was inhibited. Also, the y genes were required for the production of the ChlL protein.


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