Vipp1 (vesicle-inducing protein in plastids 1) is found in Cyanobacteria and chloroplasts of photosynthetic eukaryotes where it is essential for the formation of the thylakoid membrane. Vipp1 is closely related to the phage shock protein A (PspA), a bacterial protein induced under diverse stress conditions. Vipp1 proteins differ from PspA by an additional C-terminal domain that is required for Vipp1 function in thylakoid biogenesis. We show here that in Cyanobacteria, green algae, and vascular plants, Vipp1 is part of a high molecular mass complex. The complex is formed by multiple copies of Vipp1, and complex formation involves interaction of the central ␣-helical domain that is common to Vipp1 as well as to PspA proteins. In chloroplasts of vascular plants, the Vipp1 complex can be visualized by green fluorescent protein fusion in discrete locations at the inner envelope. Green fluorescent protein fusion analysis furthermore revealed that complex formation is important for proper positioning of Vipp1 at the inner envelope of chloroplasts.Oxygenic photosynthesis is a specific feature of Cyanobacteria and chloroplasts of plants and algae. Characteristic of oxygenic photosynthesis is a specialized membrane system, the thylakoids, on which the components of the photosynthetic machinery are located (1). Despite its importance in the process of oxygenic photosynthesis, very little is known about the origin of the thylakoid membrane system in the ancestry of present day Cyanobacteria. Furthermore, proteins and other factors that are involved in the formation and maintenance of the thylakoid membrane in either Cyanobacteria or chloroplasts are not well defined.We have shown recently that in Arabidopsis as well as in Synechocystis the Vipp1 1 protein is essential for thylakoid biogenesis (2, 3). ⌬-vipp1 mutants, in which the expression of the vipp1 gene is greatly reduced, have lost their ability to build up a thylakoid membrane system and to perform oxygenic photosynthesis (2, 3). Interestingly, disruption of the vipp1 gene in Arabidopsis also abolished chloroplast vesicle transport, which has an alleged function in thylakoid formation in the chloroplasts of higher plants (2, 4). Vipp1 is closely related to PspA, a bacterial protein that is induced under distinct stress conditions, i.e. invasion by filamentous phages, inhibition of lipid biosynthesis, secretion defects, or the saturation of the twin arginine pathway (5-8). PspA and Vipp1 are distinguished by a C-terminal domain of about 20 -30 amino acids which is present in all Vipp1 proteins but lacking in PspA (3). It is presumed that this C-terminal extension is important for the role of Vipp1 in thylakoid biogenesis. Most Cyanobacteria possess genes coding for both PspA and Vipp1. Chloroplasts seem to have retained solely Vipp1, indicating that the function of PspA is no longer required in this organelle.So far, the exact function of PspA and Vipp1 remains elusive. In bacteria, PspA is part of a larger operon encoding four more proteins, PspB-PspE. PspA is induce...