plastid thylakoid membrane

GO:0055035 · Membrane organelle · Membrane · Proposed

The lipid bilayer membrane of any thylakoid within a plastid. [GO:0055035]

Part of: plastid thylakoid (GO:0031976)

Components

Component	Type	Part of / acts on	Grounding	Genes	Stoichiometry	Essential	Role
plastid thylakoid lipid bilayer	Lipid	part of	Reviewed label only (reviewed name; no accession asserted)			ESSENTIAL	Pigmented plastid thylakoid lipid bilayer that bounds the lumen and houses photosynthetic light-reaction complexes. `GO:0055035` GO:0055035 defines the plastid thylakoid membrane as the lipid bilayer membrane of any thylakoid within a plastid. `GO:0031978` GO:0031978 defines the plastid thylakoid lumen as the volume enclosed by a plastid thylakoid membrane. `DOI:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-120823-022747` Perez-Boerema et al. 2024 review plastid thylakoid structural diversity and light-reaction membranes.

NCBITaxon:33090 Viridiplantae — COMMON: Photosynthetic green algae and land plants have plastid thylakoid membranes that bound lumenal compartments and support light reactions. [DOI:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-120823-022747]
NCBITaxon:38254 Glaucocystophyceae — COMMON: Glaucophyte cyanelles contain cyanelle thylakoid membranes, the cyanelle subtype of plastid thylakoid membrane. [GO:0033115]

NCBITaxon:3055 Chlamydomonas reinhardtii — Unicellular green alga whose native chloroplast thylakoid membranes were resolved by in situ cryo-electron tomography. [DOI:10.7554/eLife.04889]

photosynthesis, light reaction GO:0019684 — The plastid thylakoid membrane is the internal plastid membrane surface where photosynthetic light-reaction complexes convert light energy into electron transport and a trans-thylakoid proton gradient.
- DOI:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-120823-022747 Perez-Boerema et al. 2024 review plastid thylakoid membranes as conserved sites of photosynthetic light reactions.

The plastid thylakoid membrane bounds the thylakoid lumen and supports photosynthetic light reactions.

Subject	Predicate	Object	Evidence
plastid thylakoid membrane	bounds	plastid thylakoid lumen	`GO:0055035` GO:0055035 defines the plastid thylakoid membrane as a thylakoid lipid bilayer. `GO:0031978` GO:0031978 defines the plastid thylakoid lumen as the volume enclosed by that membrane.
plastid thylakoid membrane	supports	photosynthesis, light reaction	`DOI:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-120823-022747` Perez-Boerema et al. 2024 review plastid thylakoid membranes as light-reaction membrane systems.

CURATION_TODO (OPEN): Resolve an exact source-neutral grounding for the lipid constituent of the plastid thylakoid membrane. GO:0055035 identifies the whole plastid thylakoid membrane, but the lipid bilayer constituent is intentionally left as a reviewed-label-only component until an exact source-neutral lipid or membrane-constituent CURIE is curated.
INTERPRETATION (RESOLVED): Keep the plastid thylakoid membrane distinct from chloroplast, cyanelle, and organellar chromatophore thylakoid membrane children. GO:0055035 denotes the generic lipid bilayer membrane of any thylakoid within a plastid, while GO:0009535, GO:0033115, and GO:0070118 denote lineage-specific child membranes.

GO:0055035 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for plastid thylakoid membrane.
GO:0042651 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for thylakoid membrane, the broader plastid-independent parent.
GO:0031976 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the plastid thylakoid that this membrane is part of.
GO:0031978 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for the plastid thylakoid lumen bounded by this membrane.
GO:0019684 Gene Ontology biological-process term for photosynthesis, light reaction.
DOI:10.1146/annurev-cellbio-120823-022747 Perez-Boerema et al. 2024, Evolution of Thylakoid Structural Diversity, Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology.
DOI:10.7554/eLife.04889 Engel et al. 2015, Native architecture of the Chlamydomonas chloroplast revealed by in situ cryo-electron tomography, eLife.
GO:0033115 Gene Ontology cellular-component term for cyanelle thylakoid membrane, the cyanelle subtype of plastid thylakoid membrane.

2026-09-13T23:13:29Z codex · CREATED_RECORD — Scaffolded by scripts/new_record.py
2026-09-13T23:14:00Z codex · EXPANDED_RECORD — Added thylakoid-membrane parentage, plastid thylakoid parthood, a reviewed-label-only lipid-bilayer component, Viridiplantae and Glaucocystophyceae scope, a Chlamydomonas example, a photosynthesis light-reaction function, a nonmechanistic topology graph, a lipid-grounding TODO, and a resolved generic-versus-child interpretation.
2026-09-21T10:04:10Z codex · REPLACED_UNREADABLE_EVIDENCE — Replaced unreadable Jackson et al. 2015 Glaucophyta evidence with reachable cyanelle evidence for #1231.