Galactosyl Transferase Activity in Developing Plastids from Naturally Greening Oat Leaves

It is now established that the reactions involved in fatty acid and galactolipid biosynthesis in leaves are located exclusively in plastids, but that they do require the cooperation of the extra-chloroplastic fraction of the cell to provide the precursors for these synthesis (Roughan, Slack 1982).Research on the lipid biosynthetic capacities of developing plastids has hitherto concentrated on their fatty acids. Last year we reported some of the results of our early studies on UDP-gal transferase activity in naturally developing oat leaf plastids. Some of the results of these and subsequent studies are reported here.