Interference of electron transport inhibitors with desaturation of monogalactosyl diacylglycerol in intact chloroplasts.

Isolated intact chloroplasts are able to desaturate fatty acids in newly synthesized monogalactosyl diacylglycerol. By analogy with other systems, this desaturation might be expected to involve electron carriers. The effects of electron transport inhibitors on chloroplast lipid-linked desaturation were therefore investigated. Because desaturation occurs in the dark and is not inhibited by compounds specifically blocking photosystem II, it appeared that the photosystems themselves did not participate. Several compounds that prevent enzymatic reoxidation of plastoquinol in thylakoid membranes at the Qz site or withdraw electrons from this lipophilic electron carrier inhibited desaturation in the dark. This inhibition could not be reversed by adding chemicals that donate electrons to photosystem I, indicating that carriers past the cytochrome b/f complex were not involved. Inhibitors of cyclic electron transport interfered with desaturation only at rather high concentrations or not at all. Additional compounds that block the reduction of quinones were slightly inhibitory. Dithioerythritol and KCN also inhibited desaturation, although their exact mode of action is unknown. Dinitrophenyl-iodonitrothymol (DNP-INT), stigmatellin, and myxothiazol did not block desaturation at concentrations that inhibited photosynthetic electron flow through the Qz site very efficiently. Therefore, these results argue against an involvement of the Qz site in desaturation. Accordingly, the inhibition by the other compounds seemingly interfering at the same site as well as that by electron acceptors could be due to interference at a different redox step in desaturation. In vitro these compounds function also as electron acceptors in diaphorase reactions catalyzed by ferredoxin:NADP oxidoreductase.