Light-induced Changes of the Carotenoid Levels in Chloroplast Envelopes

The carotenoid content of thylakoids and envelopes isolated from dark-or light-treated spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) chloroplasts was compared. In thylakoids, light induced a decrease of violaxanthin parallel with a stoichiometric increase of zeaxanthin due to violaxanthin deepoxidation. In envelopes, violaxanthin was also decreased and the relative decrease was similar to thylakoids, but zeaxanthin increase was small resulting in an over-all decrease of the amount of envelope carotenoids. When violaxanthin deepoxidation in thylakoids was partly inhibited by 10 nm nigericin, violaxanthin decrease in the envelope was inhibited to a similar degree.These observations together with the absence of deepoxidase activity in isolated envelopes plus added stroma proteins suggest that light-induced violaxanthin decrease in the envelope is not caused by an envelope or stroma deepoxidase but results from violaxanthin exchange between envelope and thylakoids.