Tracking Down Chlorophyll Breakdown in Plants: Elucidation of the Constitution of a “Fluorescent” Chlorophyll Catabolite

Abstract

The biological enigma of the breakdown of chlorophyll in plants only recently began to be understood. The structure elucidation of a “fluorescent” catabolite (depicted on the right) from senescent rape cotyledons provides further insight into this process. For this purpose, the catabolite was prepared from pheophorbide a with an enzyme extract from senescent choloroplasts.