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The lipid composition of thylakoid membranes was compared between mesophyll and bundle sheath chloroplasts of maize. According to mild-denaturing gel electrophoresis, mesophyll thylakoids contained both PS Ⅰ complex and PS Ⅱ light-harvesting chlorophyll-protein complex(LHCP), while those of bundle sheath cells contained mainly PS Ⅰ complex. The amount of lipids per mg chlorophyll was higher in bundle sheath thylakoids than in mesophyll. The major polar lipid classes were monogalactosyldiacylglycerol(MGDG), digalactosyldiacylglycerol, sulfolipid and phosphatidylglycerol(PG) in both tissues. Linolenic acid(18:3), linoleic acid(18:2) and plamitic acid(16:0) were the main fatty acyl components, with higher ratio of unsaturated to saturated fatty acids in bundle sheath thylakoids, suggesting these membranes are more fluid. The most striking difference in lipid composition between the two kinds of tissues was the practical absence of trans-Δ^3-hexadecenoic acd(16:1t) in PG of bundle sheath thylakoids. This fatty acid is known to be involved in the association of LHCP as oligomeric form. More than 80% of MGDG molecular species was 18:3, 18:3, demonstrating that maize is a typical 18:3 plant. Therefore, the possibility of the functional relationships between the lamella structure, and thus the distribution of photosystems, and MGDG molecular species was excluded.
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