Kinetics of photoconversion of protochlorophyllide 649 to chlorophyllide 676 at low temperature in etiolated cotyledons of Pharbitis nil.

The kinetics of the photoconversion of protochlorophyllide 649 to chlorophyllide 676 were studied spectrophotometrically over the temperature range of -15 -- -80 degrees C under light-saturating conditions in etiolated cotyledons of Pharbitis nil. Photoconversion obeyed the sum of two first-order kinetics over this low temperature range. Activation energies obtained from the rate constants were about 5000 cal; this suggests that these two processes may be physical processes not chemical reactions. The results indicate that photoconversion involves two main steps. One is the step dependent on both light intensity and temperature that has been well studied. The other, which is concerned in this study, is the step dependent on temperature only, which may be the requisite for photoconversion. This latter step seems to be related to the binding mode of protochlorophyllide to a holochrome protein or to conformational changes in the protochlorophyllide-holochrome.