Chloroplast

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media type="youtube" key="xTdeoLB4j0g" height="344" width="425" The sketch of the chloroplast above was made from an electron micrograph of a chloroplast from a higher order plant (Levy). Plants use energy from the sun in tiny energy factories called chloroplasts. Using chlorophyll in the process called photosynthesis, they convert the sun's energy into storable form in ordered sugar molecules such as glucose. In this way, carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil in a more disordered state are combined to form the more ordered sugar molecules. = = = = = = =Chloroplast=

Chloroplasts are specialized organelles found in all higher plant cells. These organelles contain the plant cell's chlorophyll, hence provide the green color. They have a double outer membrane. Within the stroma are other membrane structures - the thylakoids and grana (singular = granum) where photosynthesis takes place. **Chloroplasts** are the food producers of the cell. They are only found in plant cells and some protists. Animal cells do not have chloroplasts. Every green plant you see is working to convert the energy of the sun into sugars. Plants are the basis of all life on Earth. They create sugars, and the byproduct of that process is the oxygen that we breathe. That process happens in the chloroplast. Mitochondria work in the opposite direction and break down the sugars and nutrients that the cell receives.

The chloroplast, basically, is the organelle responsible for photosynthesis. Structurally it is very similar to the mitochondrion. It contains a permeable outer membrane, a less permeable inner membrane, a intermembrane space, and an inner section called the stroma. However, the chloroplast is larger than the mitochondria. It needs to have the larger size because its membrane is not folded into cristae. Also the inner membrane is not used for the electron transport chain. Instead it contains the light-absorbing system, the electron transport chain, and ATP synthetase in a third membrane that forms a series of flattened discs, called the thylakoids. http://library.thinkquest.org/C004535/chloroplast.html

One of the most widely recognized and important characteristics of plants is their ability to conduct **photosynthesis**, in effect, to make their own food by converting light energy into chemical energy. This process occurs in almost all plant species and is carried out in specialized organelles known as chloroplasts. All of the green structures in plants, including stems and unripened fruit, contain chloroplasts, but the majority of photosynthesis activity in most plants occurs in the leaves. On the average, the chloroplast density on the surface of a leaf is about one-half million per square millimeter.

Structure
Chloroplasts are observable morphologically as flat discs usually 2 to 10 micrometer in diameter and 1 micrometer thick. In land plants they are generally 5 μm in diameter and 2.3 μm thick. The chloroplast is contained by an envelope that consists of an inner and an outer phospholipid membrane. Between these two layers is the intermembrane space. A typical [parenchyma] cell contains about 10 to 100 chloroplasts. The material within the chloroplast is called the stroma, corresponding to the cytosol of the original bacterium, and contains one or more molecules of small circular DNA. It also contains ribosomes, although most of its proteins are encoded by genes contained in the host cell nucleus, with the protein products transported to the chloroplast.   Chloroplast ultrastructure: 1. outer membrane 2. intermembrane space 3. inner membrane (1+2+3: envelope) 4. stroma (aqueous fluid) 5. thylakoid lumen (inside of thylakoid) 6. thylakoid membrane 7. granum (stack of thylakoids) 8. thylakoid (lamella) 9. starch 10. ribosome 11. plastidial DNA 12. plastoglobule (drop of lipids) Within the stroma are stacks of thylakoids, the sub-organelles which are the site of photosynthesis. The thylakoids are arranged in stacks called grana (singular: granum). A thylakoid has a flattened disk shape. Inside it is an empty area called the thylakoid space or lumen. Photosynthesis takes place on the thylakoid membrane; as in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation, it involves the coupling of cross-membrane fluxes with biosynthesis via the dissipation of a proton electrochemical gradient. In the electron microscope, thylakoid membranes appear as alternating light-and-dark bands, each 0.01 μm thick. Embedded in the thylakoid membrane is the antenna complex, which consists of the light-absorbing pigments, including chlorophyll and carotenoids, and proteins (which bind the chlorophyll). This complex both increases the surface area for light capture, and allows capture of photons with a wider range of wavelengths. The energy of the incident photons is absorbed by the pigments and funneled to the reaction centre of this complex through resonance energy transfer. Two chlorophyll molecules are then ionised, producing an excited electron which then passes onto the photochemical reaction centre. Recent studies have shown that chloroplasts can be interconnected by tubular bridges called stromules, formed as extensions of their outer membranes.[|[][|8][|]] Chloroplasts appear to be able to exchange proteins via stromules,and thus function as a network.

Chloroplasts are one of several different types of **plastids**, plant cell organelles that are involved in energy storage and the synthesis of metabolic materials. The colorless leucoplasts, for instance, are involved in the synthesis of starch, oils, and proteins. Yellow-to-red colored chromoplasts manufacture carotenoids, and the green colored chloroplasts contain the pigments chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, which are able to absorb the light energy needed for photosynthesis to occur. All plastids develop from tiny organelles found in the immature cells of plant meristems (undifferentiated plant tissue) termed **proplastids**, and those of a particular plant species all contain copies of the same circular genome. The disparities between the various types of plastids are based upon the needs of the differentiated cells they are contained in, which may be influenced by environmental conditions, such as whether light or darkness surrounds a leaf as it grows. The ellipsoid-shaped chloroplast is enclosed in a double membrane and the area between the two layers that make up the membrane is called the **intermembrane space**. The outer layer of the double membrane is much more permeable than the inner layer, which features a number of embedded membrane transport proteins. Enclosed by the chloroplast membrane is the **stroma**, a semi-fluid material that contains dissolved enzymes and comprises most of the chloroplast's volume. Since, like mitochondria, chloroplasts possess their own genomes (DNA), the stroma contains chloroplast DNA and special ribosomes and RNAs as well. In higher plants, **lamellae**, internal membranes with stacks (each termed a **granum**) of closed hollow disks called **thylakoids**, are also usually dispersed throughout the stroma. The numerous thylakoids in each stack are thought to be connected via their lumens (internal spaces). Light travels as packets of energy called photons and is absorbed in this form by light-absorbing chlorophyll molecules embedded in the thylakoid disks. When these chlorophyll molecules absorb the photons, they emit electrons, which they obtain from water (a process that results in the release of oxygen as a byproduct). The movement of the electrons causes hydrogen ions to be propelled across the membrane surrounding the thylakoid stack, which consequently initiates the formation of an electrochemical gradient that drives the stroma's production of adenosine triphosphate (**ATP**). ATP is the chemical energy "currency" of the cell that powers the cell's metabolic activities. In the stroma, the light-independent reactions of photosynthesis, which involve carbon fixation, occur, and low-energy carbon dioxide is transformed into a high-energy compound like glucose. Plant cells are remarkable in that they have two organelles specialized for energy production: chloroplasts, which create energy via photosynthesis, and mitochondria, which generate energy through respiration, a particularly important process when light is unavailable. Like the mitochondrion, the chloroplast is different from most other organelles because it has its own DNA and reproduces independently of the cell in which it is found; an apparent case of endosymbiosis. Scientists hypothesize that millions of years ago small, free-living prokaryotes were engulfed, but not consumed, by larger prokaryotes, perhaps because they were able to resist the digestive enzymes of the engulfing organism. According to DNA evidence, the eukaryotic organisms that later became plants likely added the photosynthetic pathway in this way, by acquiring a photosynthetic bacterium as an endosymbiont. As suggested by this hypothesis, the two organisms developed a symbiotic relationship over time, the larger organism providing the smaller with ample nutrients and the smaller organism providing ATP molecules to the larger one. Eventually, the larger organism developed into the eukaryotic cell, the smaller organism into the chloroplast. Nonetheless, there are a number of prokaryotic traits that chloroplasts continue to exhibit. Their DNA is circular, as it is in the prokaryotes, and their ribosomes and reproductive methods (binary fission) are more like those of the prokaryotes.
 * Chloroplasts** are organelles found in plant cells and eukaryotic algae that conduct photosynthesis. Chloroplasts absorb light and use it in conjunction with water and carbon dioxide to produce sugars, the raw material for energy and [|biomass] production in all green plants and the animals that depend on them, directly or indirectly, for food. Chloroplasts capture light energy to conserve free energy in the form of ATP and reduce NADP to NADPH through a complex set of processes called photosynthesis. The word chloroplast is derived from the Greek words //chloros// which means green and //plast// which means form or entity. Chloroplasts are members of a class of organelles known as plastids.

The chloroplast is a membranous system made up of stacked discs (thylakoids) and fluid (stroma), enclosed in a double membrane. The site of photosynthesis in a plant cell, the chloroplast is loaded with chlorophyll.



The chloroplast is made up of 3 types of membrane:
 * 1) A smooth **outer membrane** which is freely permeable to molecules.
 * 2) A smooth **inner membrane** which contains many **transporters**: integral membrane proteins that regulate the passage in an out of the chloroplast of
 * small molecules like sugars [[image:http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/chloroplast.gif width="332" height="188" align="right"]]
 * proteins synthesized in the cytoplasm of the cell but used within the chloroplast
 * 1) A system of **thylakoid membranes.**

- A plastid usually found in plant cells - Contain green chlorophyll where photosynthesis takes place ||
 * [[image:http://library.thinkquest.org/12413/img/chloroplast.jpg width="134" height="134" caption="Chloroplasts"]] || **Chloroplasts**

=Chloroplasts - Show me the Green= =Special Structures= We'll hit the high points for the structure of a chloroplast. Two membranes contain and protect the inner parts of the chloroplast. The **stroma** is an area inside of the chloroplast where reactions occur and starches (sugars) are created. One **thylakoid stack** is called a **granum**. The thylakoids have **chlorophyll** molecules on their surface. That chlorophyll uses sunlight to create sugars. The stacks of sacs are connected by **stromal lamellae**. The lamellae act like the skeleton of the chloroplast, keeping all of the sacs a safe distance from each other and maximizing the efficiency of the organelle.
 * Chloroplasts** are the food producers of the cell. They are only found in plant cells and some protists. Animal cells do not have chloroplasts. Every green plant you see is working to convert the energy of the sun into sugars. Plants are the basis of all life on Earth. They create sugars, and the byproduct of that process is the oxygen that we breathe. That process happens in the chloroplast. Mitochondria work in the opposite direction and break down the sugars and nutrients that the cell receives.

=Making Food= The purpose of the chloroplast is to make sugars and starches. They use a process called **photosynthesis** to get the job done. Photosynthesis is the process of a plant taking energy from the Sun and creating sugars. When the energy from the Sun hits a chloroplast, chlorophyll uses that energy to combine carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). The molecular reactions create sugar and oxygen (O2). Plants and animals then use the sugars (glucose) for food and energy. Animals also use the oxygen to breathe.

=Different Chlorophyll Molecules= We said that chlorophyll molecules sit on the outside of the thylakoid sacs. Not all chlorophyll is the same. Three types of chlorophyll can complete photosynthesis. There are even molecules other than chlorophyll that are photosynthetic. One day you might hear about **carotenoids**, **phycocyanin** (bacteria), **phycoerythrin** (algae), and **fucoxanthin** (brown algae). While those compounds might complete photosynthesis, they are not all green or the same structure as chlorophyll. =Making Food= The purpose of the chloroplast is to make sugars and starches. They use a process called **photosynthesis** to get the job done. Photosynthesis is the process of a plant taking energy from the Sun and creating sugars. When the energy from the Sun hits a chloroplast, chlorophyll uses that energy to combine carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). The molecular reactions create sugar and oxygen (O2). Plants and animals then use the sugars (glucose) for food and energy. Animals also use the oxygen to breathe. [|take a chloroplast quiz!]

Evolutionary origin
 Plant cells with visible chloroplasts. Chloroplasts are one of the many different types of organelles in the cell. They are generally considered to have originated as endosymbiotic cyanobacteria (i.e. blue-green algae). This was first suggested by [|Mereschkowsky] in 1905 [|[][|1] after an observation by Schimper in 1883 that chloroplasts closely resemble cyanobacteria. All chloroplasts are thought to derive directly or indirectly from a single endosymbiotic event, except for //[|Paulinella] chromatophora//, which has recently acquired a photosynthetic cyanobacterial endosymbiont which is not closely related to chloroplasts of other eukaryotes.[|[][|3][|]] In that they derive from an endosymbiotic event, chloroplasts are similar to mitochondria but chloroplasts are found only in plants and protista. The chloroplast is surrounded by a double-layered composite membrane with an intermembrane space; it has its own [|DNA] and is involved in energy metabolism. Further, it has reticulations, or many infoldings, filling the inner spaces. In green plants, chloroplasts are surrounded by two lipid-bilayer membranes. The inner membrane is now believed to correspond to the outer membrane of the ancestral cyanobacterium. Chloroplasts have their own genome, which is considerably reduced compared to that of free-living cyanobacteria, but the parts that are still present show clear similarities with the cyanobacterial genome. Plastids may contain 60-100 genes whereas cyanobacteria often contain more than 1500 genes.[|[][|4][|]] Many of the missing genes are encoded in the nuclear genome of the host. The transfer of nuclear information has been estimated in [|tobacco] plants at one [|gene] for every 16000 pollen grains.[|[][|5][|]] In some algae (such as the [|heterokonts] and other protists such as [|Euglenozoa] and [|Cercozoa]), chloroplasts seem to have evolved through a secondary event of endosymbiosis, in which a eukaryotic cell engulfed a second eukaryotic cell containing chloroplasts, forming chloroplasts with three or four membrane layers. In some cases, such secondary [|endosymbionts] may have themselves been engulfed by still other eukaryotes, thus forming tertiary endosymbionts. In the alga //Chlorella//, there is only one chloroplast, which is bell shaped. In some groups of [|mixotrophic] [|protists] such as the [|dinoflagellates], chloroplasts are separated from a captured alga or diatom and used temporarily. These [|klepto chloroplasts] may only have a lifetime of a few days and are then replaced.[|[][|6][|]]