Induction of Hexose-Phosphate Translocator Activity in Spinach Chloroplasts

Many environmental and experimental conditions lead to accumulation of carbohydrates in photosynthetic tissues. This situation is typically associated with major changes in the mRNA and protein complement of the cell, including metabolic repression of photosynthetic gene expression, which can be induced by feeding carbohydrates directly to leaves. In this study we examined the carbohydrate transport properties of chloroplasts isolated from spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) leaves fed with glucose for several days. These chloroplasts contain large quantities of starch, can perform photosynthetic 3-phosphoglycerate reduction, and surprisingly also have the ability to perform starch synthesis from exogenous glucose-6-phosphate (Glc-6-P) both in the light and in darkness, similarly to heterotrophic plastids. Glucose-1-phosphate does not act as an exogenous precursor for starch synthesis. Light, ATP, and 3-phosphoglyceric acid stimulate Glc-6-P-dependent starch synthesis. Short-term uptake experiments indicate that a novel Glc-6-P-translocator capacity is present in the envelope membrane, exhibiting an apparent Km of 0.54 mM and a Vmax of 2.9 mu]mol Glc-6-P mg-1 chlorophyll h-1. Similar results were obtained with chloroplasts isolated from glucose-fed potato leaves and from water-stressed spinach leaves. The generally held view that sugar phosphates transported by chloroplasts are confined to triose phosphates is not supported by these results. A physiological role for a Glc-6-P translocator in green plastids is presented with reference to the source/sink function of the leaf.