The effects of the expression of the rolC gene on protein accumulation in the chloroplasts of transgenic Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) were investigated. Coleoptile tissues excised from 3-day dark-grown seedlings were bombarded with tungsten particles coated with DNA of the engineered plasmid, pGA-GUSGF, containing the npt II, gus, and rolC genes. The tissues were cultured on callus induction medium, which consists of MS salts supplemented with 0.2 mg/L picloram, 0.01 mg/L naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) 250 mg/L kanamycin, and 100 mM acetosyringone. The putative transformants were either albinos or variegated plants composed of white and green sections. These albino plants had little or no stroma-based 56-kDa and 14-kDa subunits of the suspected Rubisco proteins, which are expressed in response to genes in the nucleus and plastid, respectively. The albino plants also lacked the 110-kDa and 57–58-kDa, and 43, 47-kDa polypeptides in PS I, coupling factor, and PS II in thylakoid membranes, respectively. These proteins involved in photosynthesis are translated from plastidbased genes. No light-harvesting complex proteins (LHC) were observed in these albino plants. LHC genes are encoded in the nucleus. The thylakoid membrane proteins in the chloroplasts of the rolC transgenic variegated plants contained these proteins. Our data suggest that the nucleus and plastid gene products for plastid development are concomitantly impaired by expression of genes in the transgenic plants.