The mechanism of cyclic phosphorylation by illuminated chloroplasts

In the reaction discovered by Hill (1937, 1939), chloroplasts isolated from the cell were shown to be capable, upon illumination, of reducing an artificial hydrogen acceptor with the concurrent evolution of oxygen. The ‘Hill reaction’ was regarded as a partial model of the light reaction in photosynthesis where limited reducing power and molecular oxygen arose from the photolysis of water. Attempts to relate this reaction to the photochemical events preceding the dark reduction of carbon dioxide in photosynthesis received their first direct support from the finding of San Pietro & Lang (1958) that nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate ( NADP )can serve as an effective acceptor of hydrogen in the photochemical reaction when the system is supplemented with a catalytic amount of a soluble protein extracted from leaves. Added significance was given to this finding by the further observation of Amon, Whatley & Allen (1959), that hydrogen transport in the reaction could be coupled to the phosphorylation of adenosine diphosphate { ADP ) to yield adenosine triphosphate { ATP ) concurrently with the reduction of NADP and the production of oxygen in the stoicheiometric proportions: l NADP LL 2 jl ATP /^0 2 . They had previously demonstrated a similar coupling of phosphorylation to hydrogen transport when the artificial reagent, ferricyanide, served as hydrogen acceptor (Arnon, Whatley & Allen 1958). In this work, Amon et al. made the further important observation that hydrogen transport in the ferricyanide reaction is strongly stimulated when phosphorylation occurs concurrently.