Chlororespiration.

The term 'chlororespiration' is used to describe the activity of a putative respiratory electron transler chain within the thylakoid membrane of chloroplasts and was originally proposed by Bennouon in 1982 to explain effects on the redox state of the plastoquinone pool in green algae in the absence of photosynthetic plastoquinone electrontransfer. In his original model, Bennoun suggested that the pool could be reduced through the action of a NAD(P) H dehydrogenase and could be oxidized by oxygen at an oxidase. At the same time an electrochemical gradient would be generated across the membrane. This review describes the current status of the chlororespiration model in light of the recent discoveries of novel respiratory components chloroplast thylakoid membrane.