Transport of proteins into chloroplasts. Requirements for the efficient import of two lumenal oxygen-evolving complex proteins into isolated thylakoids.

The 33- and 23-kDa proteins of the photosynthetic oxygen-evolving complex are synthesized in the cytosol and targeted into the thylakoid lumen by bipartite presequences. In this report, we describe conditions for the efficient import of each of these proteins by isolated pea thylakoids. Import of the 33-kDa protein requires both light and stromal extract. The probable function of the stromal extract is to provide stromal processing peptidase to remove the first "envelope transit" signal of the presequence. Import of the 23-kDa protein is also driven by light, but stromal extract is not required for import; furthermore, efficient import is still observed if the precursor is modified to completely block cleavage by residual stromal processing peptidase activity. The intermediate form of the 23-kDa protein, which is generated by incubation of the precursor protein with stromal processing peptidase, is also efficiently imported. The results indicate that the thylakoidal protein transport system can import both the precursor and intermediate forms of the 23-kDa protein, but probably only the intermediate form of the 33-kDa protein.