Environmental effects on acidic lipids of thylakoid membranes.

The contents of the chloroplast acidic lipids, SQDG (sulphoquinovosyldiacylglycerol) and PG (phosphatidylglycerol), were reduced in the cells of Chlamydomonas reinhartdtii with exposure to sulphur- or phosphorus-source limitation, respectively. The decrease in the content of one acidic lipid was accompanied by an increase in the content of the other acidic lipid, which resulted in the maintenance of a certain level of total acidic lipids of chloroplast membranes. On the other hand, the content of each acidic lipid was little affected by temperature stresses during cell growth.