Preparation and characterization of phospholipid-depleted chloroplasts.

Spinach class II chloroplasts were treated with snake venom phospholipase A2 in the presence of bovine serum albumin, and separated by sucrose-density centrifugation. The treatment yielded phospholipid-depleted chloroplasts which had lost 82.6% of the original phospholipids. About 20% of the phospholipids of chloroplasts were resistant to enzyme attack. These results suggest that phospholipids exist in two states in chloroplast membranes. In spite of considerable phospholipid depletion, the chloroplast preparations retained a large portion of their photoactivities, i.e. light-induced electron transport, light-induced H+ uptake, and light-induced shrinkage. However, cyclic photophosphorylation was significantly affected with the phospholipid removal.