Abstract
chlorina5 is a mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana with pale green leaves. Its chlorophyll and carotenoid contents were approximately half of those in wild type. The degree of grana stacking was less in the mutant than in wild type. We identified that the ch5 mutation is a G to A convertion in a gene encoding a putative Zn binding protease. The mutation was predicted to cause a convertion of a W codon into a stop codon, which may lead to premature termination of the translation.
We found that the Ch5 expression was stronger in leaves and flowers and weaker in roots in wild type. We detected the gene products in thylakoid membranes by western blotting. Based on these results, we are going to discuss the function of the Ch5 protein.
