Evidence for a Rapid Oxygen-Uptake in Tobacco Chloroplasts

A fast oxygen uptake, induced by a sequence of short (5 /usee) saturating flashes was observed in chloroplasts of wild type tobacco and two chlorophyll-deficient tobacco mutants. One of the chlorophyll mutants is the earlier described variegated tobacco NC 95. Chloroplasts of this mutant exhibit only photosystem I mediated photoreactions, hence the observed oxygen uptake is to be associated with photosystem I. This is further substantiated by the fact that the oxygen uptake is insensitive to DCMU in the two chloroplast types used, which have both photosystems fully func­ tioning. The uptake depends on the addition of electron acceptors like p-benzoquinone in intact chloroplasts or on p-benzoquinone or ferricyanide in chloroplasts that have lost the envelope. In dark adapted chloroplasts, therefore, under these conditions the overall apparent gas exchange in the first two flashes is consumption. Although the uptake is slower than photosynthetic oxygen evolution it clearly affects the oxygen yield in the flash sequences. This is demonstrated by several experiments in which the apparent oxygen consumption in the absence of DCMU oscillates with a periodicity of four. We have indications that in chloroplasts of the tobacco aurea mutant Su/su the oxygen uptake is faster than in wild type chloroplasts.