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Plant and Cell Physiology 2005 46(9):1443-1451; doi:10.1093/pcp/pci156
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New Insights in Thylakoid Membrane Organization

Stephan Pfeiffer1 and Karin Krupinska1,2,*

1 Central Microscopy, Center of Biology, University of Kiel, Am Botanischen Garten 5, D-24098 Kiel, Germany
2 Institute of Botany, Olshausenstrasse 40, D-24098 Kiel, Germany

* Corresponding author: E-mail, kkrupinska{at}bot.uni-kiel.de; Fax, +49-4318804238.

High-pressure freezing (HPF) in combination with freeze substitution (FS) was used to analyse changes in the structure of barley chloroplasts during the daily change of light and darkness. In contrast to conventional treatment of samples, HPF-FS revealed substantial differences in chloroplast shape, volume and ultrastructure in the light period and during darkness. While chloroplasts have an ellipsoidal shape in the light, they have an enlarged and round form during the dark period. Samples collected in the light show the typical differentiation of stroma and grana thylakoids as observed by conventional ultrastructural analyses. In chloroplasts of samples collected during the dark period, thylakoids were swollen and grana stacks to a large extent were disintegrated. Similar changes occurred when leaves in the light were treated with the uncoupler gramicidin. The results suggest that the light-dependent changes in thylakoid membrane organization are related to the light-dependent changes in the ionic milieu of the thylakoid lumen and the stroma.

(Received May 30, 2005; Accepted June 11, 2005)
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