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Updated: May 7, 2026

Arabidopsis thaliana Polar Glycerolipid Profiling by Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) Coupled with Gas-Liquid Chromatography (GLC)
Published on: March 18, 2011
Glycerolipids in photosynthesis: composition, synthesis and trafficking
Laurence Boudière1, Morgane Michaud1, Dimitris Petroutsos1
1Laboratoire de Physiologie Cellulaire, Végétale, CNRS UMR 5168, CEA iRTSV, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, INRA USC 1359, CEA Grenoble, 17 rue des Martyrs, 38054, Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
Abstract:
Glycerolipids constituting the matrix of photosynthetic membranes, from cyanobacteria to chloroplasts of eukaryotic cells, comprise monogalactosyldiacylglycerol, digalactosyldiacylglycerol, sulfoquinovosyldiacylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol. This review covers our current knowledge on the structural and functional features of these lipids in various cellular models, from prokaryotes to eukaryotes. Their relative proportions in thylakoid membranes result from highly regulated and compartmentalized metabolic pathways, with a cooperation, in the case of eukaryotes, of non-plastidic compartments. This review also focuses on the role of each of these thylakoid glycerolipids in stabilizing protein complexes of the photosynthetic machinery, which might be one of the reasons for their fascinating conservation in the course of evolution. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Dynamic and ultrastructure of bioenergetic membranes and their components.
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