In vivo 1H NMR methods to study dynamics of chloroplast water and thylakoid membrane lipids in leaves and in photo-synthetic microorganisms

Plants experience varying environmental conditions such as high light, low light and high temperature in daily life. Flexibility of chloroplast thylakoid membrane proteins is essential for plant fitness and survival during such fluctuations1. The aim of this thesis is to study dynamics of chloroplast water, thylakoid membrane lipids and proteins in different environmental conditions. To get insight into the significance of the mobility (dynamics) of proteins and lipids, I refer to the chapter “Role of Lipids in the Dynamics of Thylakoid membrane” (title of the book is Lipids in Photosynthesis) written by C. W. Mullineaux and H. Kirchhoff2. The authors describe how important the mobility of proteins and lipids is in photosynthesis, and some examples are plastoquinol diffusion during electron transport, LHCII mobility during state transitions and membrane biogenesis, and in turnover & repair of thylakoid membrane proteins. An overview of various methods to measure thylakoid membrane dynamics and advantages & limitations of these methods taken from that chapter is listed below.