Conversion of chlorophyll b to chlorophyll a precedes magnesium dechelation for protection against necrosis in Arabidopsis.

Chlorophyll is a deleterious molecule that generates reactive oxygen species and must be converted to nontoxic molecules during plant senescence. The degradation pathway of chlorophyll a has been determined; however, that of chlorophyll b is poorly understood, and multiple pathways of chlorophyll b degradation have been proposed. In this study, we found that chlorophyll b is degraded by a single pathway, and elucidated the importance of this pathway in avoiding cell death. In order to determine the chlorophyll degradation pathway, we first examined the substrate specificity of 7-hydroxymethyl chlorophyll a reductase. 7-hydroxymethyl chlorophyll a reductase reduces 7-hydroxymethyl chlorophyll a but not 7-hydroxymethyl pheophytin a or 7-hydroxymethyl pheophorbide a. These results indicate that the first step of chlorophyll b degradation is its conversion to 7-hydroxymethyl chlorophyll a by chlorophyll b reductase, although chlorophyll b reductase has broad substrate specificity. In vitro experiments showed that chlorophyll b reductase converted all of the chlorophyll b in the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b protein complex to 7-hydroxymethyl chlorophyll a, but did not completely convert chlorophyll b in the core antenna complexes. When plants whose core antennae contained chlorophyll b were incubated in the dark, chlorophyll b was not properly degraded, and the accumulation of 7-hydroxymethyl pheophorbide a and pheophorbide b resulted in cell death. This result indicates that chlorophyll b is not properly degraded when it exists in core antenna complexes. Based on these results, we discuss the importance of the proper degradation of chlorophyll b.