The alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii contains cytoplasmic vacuoles that are often filled with a dense granule that is released from the cell by exocytosis. Purified granules contained polyphosphate, complexed with calcium and magnesium, as the predominant inorganic components. Antiserum was raised against the major 70-kDa protein in granules purified from wall-deficient (cw15) mutants, which reacted on immunoblots with larger glycoprotein complexes in purified cell wall fractions from wild-type cells. Confocal fluorescence microscopy detected binding of these antibodies predominantly at the periphery of wall-containing C. reinhardtii y1 cells but primarily to loci in the interior of cells of the cw15 strain. Immunoelectron microscopy demonstrated that the 70-kDa protein was localized in vacuolar granules and the trans-Golgi network in sections of cw15 cells but not in the cytosol or chloroplast. Treatment of cells with a dye, fluorescent in its protonated form, indicated that the pH within vacuoles was lower than that in the cytosol, which suggested that the vacuoles are similar to lysosomes. Thus, the vacuoles may serve a dual function to provide an environment for degradation within the cell and also serve as a vehicle for secretion of specific proteins.

The origin of thylakoid membranes was studied in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii y-1 cells during greening at 380C. Previous studies showed that, when dark-grown cells are exposed to light under these conditions, the initial rates of accumulation of chlorophyll and the chlorophyll a/b-binding proteins in membranes are maximal (MA Maloney JK Hoober, DB Marks [1989] Plant Physiol 91: 1100-1106; JK Hoober MA Maloney, LR Asbury, DB Marks [1990] Plant Physiol 92: 419-426). As shown in this paper, photosystem 11 activity, which was nearly absent in dark-grown cells, also increased at a linear rate in parallel with chlorophyll. As compared with those made at 250C, photosystem 11 units assembled during greening at 380C were photochemically more efficient, as judged by saturation at a lower fluence of light and a negligible loss of excitation energy as fluorescence. Electron microscopy of cells in light for 5 or 15 minutes at 380C showed that these initial, functional thylakoid membranes developed in association with the chloroplast envelope.

Recent results obtained by electron microscopic and biochemical analyses of greening Chlamydomonas reinhardtii y1 suggest that localized expansion of the plastid envelope is involved in thylakoid biogenesis. Kinetic analyses of the assembly of light-harvesting complexes and development of photosynthetic function when degreened cells of the alga are exposed to light suggest that proteins integrate into membrane at the level of the envelope. Current information, therefore, supports the earlier conclussion that the chloroplast envelope is a major biogenic structure, from which thylakoid membranes emerge. Chloroplast development in Chlamydomonas provides unique opportunities to examine in detail the biogenesis of thylakoids.