Chloroplast Part 2

Photosynthesis:
Structure And Function Of

Chloroplast
Ravinayak Patlavath
Department of Botany,
Faculty of Science,
The M S University of Baroda
• The word chloroplast is derived from the Greek words chloros, which means
‘green’, and plastes, which means “the one who forms”.
• Chloroplasts can be found in the cells of the mesophyll in plant leaves.
• There are usually 30-40 per mesophyll cells.
Holly Croft et al
Discovery of Chloroplast
Jan Villamor Anna- Maria Allen Amanda

Origin Of Chloroplast
What Is the Origin of Chloroplasts?
• A eukaryotic cell engulfed an aerobic prokaryote, which then formed an

endosymbiotic relationship with the host eukaryote, gradually developing into a
mitochondrion. Eukaryotic cells containing mitochondria then engulfed
photosynthetic prokaryotes, which evolved to become specialized chloroplast
organelles.
• Chloroplasts are believed to have arisen after mitochondria, since all eukaryotes
contain mitochondria, but not all have chloroplasts. This is called serial
endosymbiosis. 2010 Nature Education
Primary Endosymbiosis
• Around 600–2000 million years
ago, a eukaryote with mitochondria
engulfed a cyanobacterium in an
event of serial primary
endosymbiosis, creating a lineage of
cells with both organelles.
• It is important to note that the
cyanobacterial endosymbiont
already had a double membrane—
the phagosomal vacuole-derived
membrane was lost.
• It has been proposed this the closest
living relative of this bacterium is
Gloeomargarita lithophora.
Secondary Endosymbiosis
Secondary endosymbiosis consisted of a eukaryotic alga being engulfed by

another eukaryote, forming a chloroplast with three or four membranes.
Secondary Endosymbiosis
• The genes in the phagocytosed eukaryote's
nucleus are often transferred to the
secondary host's nucleus.
• Cryptomonads and chlorarachniophytes
retain the phagocytosed eukaryote's
nucleus, an object called a nucleomorph,
located between the second and third
membranes of the chloroplast.
• All secondary chloroplasts come from green
and red algae.
Euglena
TEM Of Chloroplast
Cell Press
Shapes of Chloroplast
• Chloroplasts found in higher plants are
generally biconvex or planoconvex shaped.
• In different plants, however, chloroplasts
may have different shapes, varying from
spheroid, filamentous saucer-shaped,
discoid or ovoid-shaped.
• They can be found in the cells of the
mesophyll in plant leaves. They are vesicular
and have a colorless center.
• The average size of the chloroplast is 4-6 Âµ
in diameter and 1-3 Âµ in thickness.
Shapes of Chloroplast
• Greater diversity in chloroplast shapes exists among the
algae, which often contain a single chloroplast
• shaped like a net (e.g., Oedogonium),
• a cup (e.g., Chlamydomonas),
• a ribbon-like spiral around the edges of the cell (e.g.,
Spirogyra),
• slightly twisted bands at the cell edges (e.g., Sirogonium).
• Some algae have two chloroplasts in each cell; they are
star-shaped in Zygnema,
• may follow the shape of half the cell in order
Desmidiales.
• In some algae, the chloroplast takes up most of the cell,
with pockets for the nucleus and other organelles,for
example, some species of Chlorella have a cup-shaped
chloroplast that occupies much of the cell.
Cellular location & Chloroplast
movement
• In low-light conditions, they will spread out in a sheet—
maximizing the surface area to absorb light.
• Under intense light, they will seek shelter by aligning in
vertical columns along the plant cell's cell wall or
turning sideways so that light strikes them edge-on. This
reduces exposure and protects them
from photooxidative damage.
• This ability to distribute chloroplasts so that they can
take shelter behind each other or spread out may be
the reason why land plants evolved to have many small
chloroplasts instead of a few big ones.[
• Chloroplast movement is considered one of the most
closely regulated stimulus-response systems that can be
found in plants.
• Mitochondria have also been observed to follow
chloroplasts as they move.
Differentiation, Plastid interconversion,
Replication, And Inheritance
of Chloroplast
Chloroplasts are a special type of a plant
cell organelle called a plastid
Plastid Interconversion
• Plastid differentiation is not permanent.
• Chloroplasts may be converted to chromoplasts,
which are pigment-filled plastids responsible for the
bright colors seen in flowers and ripe fruit.
• Starch storing amyloplasts can also be converted to
chromoplasts, and it is possible for proplastids to
develop straight into chromoplasts.
• Chromoplasts and amyloplasts can also become
chloroplasts, like what happens when a carrot or a
potato is illuminated.
• If a plant is injured, or something else causes a plant
cell to revert to a meristematic state, chloroplasts and
other plastids can turn back into proplastids.
• Chloroplast, amyloplast, chromoplast, proplast, etc.,
are not absolute states—intermediate forms are
common.
Chloroplast Division
• In single-celled algae,
chloroplast division is the only
way new chloroplasts are
formed.
• There is no proplastid
differentiation—when an algal
cell divides, its chloroplast
divides along with it, and
each daughter cell receives a
mature chloroplast
Chloroplast Division
• Almost all chloroplasts in a cell

divide, rather than a small
group of rapidly dividing
chloroplasts.
• Chloroplasts have no definite
S-phase—their DNA
replication is not synchronized
or limited to that of their host
cells
Chloroplast and Mitochondrial division
resembles bacterial cell division
Light Is Essential For Chloroplast Division
• Chloroplasts can grow and progress through some of the constriction

stages under poor quality green light, but are slow to complete
division—they require exposure to bright white light to complete
division.
• Spinach leaves grown under green light have been observed to
contain many large dumbbell-shaped chloroplasts. Exposure to white
light can stimulate these chloroplasts to divide and reduce the
population of dumbbell-shaped chloroplasts
Dimorphic chloroplasts
• Dimorphic chloroplasts are the
chloroplasts which are concentrated
into two types of cells having different
size and structure.
• The dimorphic chloroplast is present
in C4 plants because of the presence
of special leaf anatomy called Kranz
anatomy.
• Bundle sheath cells contain
chloroplast lacking grana while
mesophyll cells contain chloroplast
with abundant grana.
Detailed Structure of Chloroplast
Structure of Chloroplast
• Outer chloroplast membrane

• Intermembrane space and peptidoglycan wall
• Inner chloroplast membrane
• Stroma
• Pyrenoids
• Thylakoid system
• Specialized chloroplasts in C4 plants.
2010 Nature Education

Structure of Chloroplast: Membranes
• All chloroplasts have at least three membrane
systems—the outer chloroplast membrane, the inner
chloroplast membrane, and the thylakoid system
• The outer membrane:
• It is permeable to small organic molecules, whereas
the inner membrane is less permeable and studded
with transport proteins.
• The outer membrane is a semi-porous membrane that
small molecules and ions can easily diffuse across.
• However, it is not permeable to larger proteins, so
chloroplast polypeptides being synthesized in the cell
cytoplasm must be transported across the outer
chloroplast membrane by the TOC complex, or
translocon on the outer chloroplast membrane
Outer membrane extension
• The chloroplast membranes sometimes

protrude out into the cytoplasm, forming a
stromule, or stroma-containing tubule.
• Stromules are very rare in chloroplasts, and
are much more common in other plastids
like chromoplasts and amyloplasts in petals
and roots, respectively.
• They may exist to increase the chloroplast's
surface area for cross-membrane transport,
because they are often branched and
tangled with the endoplasmic reticulum
Jaideep Mathur et al Plant cell
Structure of Chloroplast: Membranes
• Inner Membrane:
• Intermembrane Space
It is usually a thin inter-membrane space about 10-20 nanometers and it is present between the
outer and the inner membrane of the chloroplast.
• Matrix:
The innermost matrix of chloroplasts, called the stroma, contains metabolic enzymes and multiple
copies of the chloroplast genome.
The chloroplast DNA chloroplast ribosomes and the thylakoid system, starch granules and many
proteins are found floating around the stroma.

Structure of Chloroplast • Thylakoid system
Chloroplasts also have a third internal membrane
called the thylakoid membrane, which is extensively
folded and appears as stacks of flattened disks in
electron micrographs.
The thylakoids contain the light-harvesting complex,
including pigments such as chlorophyll, as well as the
electron transport chains used in photosynthesis.
The thylakoids are arranged in stacks known as grana.
Each granum contains around 10-20 thylakoids.
Peripheral Reticulum
The chloroplasts of certain plants contain an additional
set of membranous tubules called peripheral
reticulum that originates from the inner membrane of
the envelope. Tiny vesicles bud off from the inner
membrane of the chloroplast and assemble to form
the tubules of the peripheral reticulum.

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Photosynthesis:

Structure And Function Of

Jan Villamor Anna- Maria Allen Amanda

• A eukaryotic cell engulfed an aerobic prokaryote, which then formed an

Secondary endosymbiosis consisted of a eukaryotic alga being engulfed by

• Almost all chloroplasts in a cell

• Chloroplasts can grow and progress through some of the constriction

• Outer chloroplast membrane

2010 Nature Education

• The chloroplast membranes sometimes

2010 Nature Education

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