CHLOROPLAST

•Chloroplasts develop from “pro-plastids” which are small

double membrane vesicles of about 1 pm in diameter without
any internal organization. New plastids are produced by fusion
of pre-existing pro-plastids. Fusion of pre-existing chloroplasts
also produces new chloroplasts.
•Pro-plastids give rise through differentiation, to different types
of plastids, e.g., leucoplast, chromoplast, chloroplast etc. Light
is necessary for the development of chloroplast from pro-
plastids.
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
Ultrastructure of Chloroplast:
•Chloroplasts of higher plants have disc-shaped or oval
structure, 10 µm in length and 2-4 µm in diameter.
•Algal species contain larger chloroplasts of different shapes,
e.g., spiral, cup-shaped, circular bands.
•The number of chloroplasts per cell is one to two in algae,
while in higher plants, several chloroplasts occur in each cell.
•Chloroplasts are enclosed by a double membrane envelope
The space between the outer and inner membranes is called
inter-membrane space.
•Light microscope shows the chloroplast to be composed of
two parts: grana (small granules) and amorphous stroma in
which grana is suspended. A
• single chloroplast may contain 50 or more grana, each
granum measuring 0.5-2 µm diameter.
Grana:
•Electron microscopy has revealed that in grana, flattened
membranous sacs called thylakoids (thylakos = pouch) are
closely stacked together.
•Within each thylakoid, there is space known as thylakoid
space. Membranes called stroma lamellae (un-stacked
thylakoids) join the thylakoids of grana.
•Spherical particles (8-11 nm diameter) emerge from the
surface of thylakoid membranes into stroma space; these
particles are similar to the spherical particles found on the
mitochondrial cristae. These particles contain CF1 (a protein
complex) which plays an important role in ATP formation.
•CF1 is attached to the thylakoid membrane by a complex of
hydrophobic proteins called CF0. The complex CF0 functions
as a transmembrane channel through which protons (H+) pass
to CF1 ATP synthesis takes place.
•Each un-stacked thylakoid is a large flattened sheet which
connects many or all of the individual thylakoids of the granum.
The thylakoid spaces are interconnected.

•Stacked thylakoids are found in all higher plants and green

algae. But lower algae, e.g., red algae, possess parallel thylakoids
which are completely separated from each other.

•In red and blue-green algae, pigment containing granules called

phycobilisomes are attached to the thylakoid membranes.
Different types of chlorophyll pigments are found in the
thylakoids.
The larger particles correspond to the photosystem II (PS II),
while the smaller ones correspond to different protein
complexes, e.g., photosystem I (PS I), cytochrome b-f
complex and CF0. The light reaction of the photosynthetic
process occurs in grana. PS I and ‘CF1-CF0‘are more frequent
in un-stacked (stroma) thylakoids.

Stroma:
Under the electron microscope, the stroma appears to be
composed of fine granules. Starch grains and lipid deposits
called plastoglobuli are present in the stroma; they serve as
lipid reservoirs for the formation of thylakoids membranes.
In higher plants, large granules called stroma-centres are
found in the stroma; they are composed of fibrils of 8-9 nm
diameter which are tightly packed.
•The stroma-centres may contain “ribulose-bi-phosphate
carboxylase” (RuBP carboxylase) enzyme, which is involved in
the carboxylation of RuBP (addition of CO2 to RuBP) during
the dark reaction.
•All the enzymes required for dark reaction are present in the
stroma. Besides the above substances, DNA, RNA, ribosomes
and the factors involved in nucleic acid and protein syntheses
are also present in the stroma.
 FUNCTION
Chloroplasts produce carbohydrates through photosynthesis, the
overall reaction being as: