On the Light Dependence of Fatty Acid Synthesis in Spinach Chloroplasts

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Abstract
The capacity of intact chloroplasts to synthesize long chain fatty acids from acetate depends on the stroma pH in S. oleracea, U.S. hybrid 424. The pH optimum is close to 8.5. Lowering of the stroma pH leads to a reduction of acetate incorporation but does not sufffice to eliminate fatty acid synthesis completely. Chain elongation from palmitic to oleic acid shows the same pH dependence. Fatty acid synthesis is activated in the dark upon the simultaneous addition of dihyroxyacetone phosphate and orthophosphate supplying ATP and oxaloacetate for reoxidation of NADPH in the stroma. Under these conditions both dark fatty acid synthesis and synthesis of oleate from palmitate show the same pH dependence as in the light. Dark fatty acid synthesis further stimulated by increasing the stromal Mg2+ concentration with the ionophore A 23187. In contrast to CO2 fixation, dark fatty acid synthesis is considerably reduced by dithiothreitol (DTT). This observation may be due to an acetyl-CoA deficiency, caused by a nonenzymic acylation of DTT, and a competition for ATP between DTT-activated CO2 fixation and fatty acid synthesis. Because DL-glyceraldehyde as inhibitor of CO2 fixation compensates the DTT effect on dark fatty acid synthesis, reducing equivalents may be involved in the light dependence of acetate activation.