Insertion of the precursor of the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-protein into the thylakoids requires the presence of a developmentally regulated stromal factor

The precursor of the major light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b-proteins of photosystem II was synthesized in vitro from a gene from Lemna gibba . The observations are consistent with the hypothesis that the insertion of the precursor into the thylakoid prior to its proteolytic processing, is one of the steps involved in the assembly of the light-harvesting complex of photosystem II.