The de novo synthesis of purine nucleotides is crucial to all living organisms, but limited information is available for plants. In this study, we isolated a virescent-albino leaf 1 (val1) mutant of rice (Oryza sativa) that produces dynamic green-revertible albino and narrow-leaf phenotypes. In albino leaves, chloroplast development was defective, pigment contents were reduced, and cell division was impaired compared with the wild-type. Map-based cloning revealed that VAL1 encodes a phosphoribosylamine-glycine ligase (PurD), the second enzyme in the de novo purine biosynthesis pathway. Subcellular localization analysis demonstrated that VAL1 was localized in the chloroplast. Our results demonstrate that VAL1 is a crucial enzyme in the de novo purine biosynthesis pathway and is involved in regulating chloroplast development, chlorophyll metabolism, and cell division during leaf development in rice.