Chloroplast

A chloroplast is a type of plant cell organelle known as a plastid.

Plastids assist in storing and harvesting needed substances for energy production.
A chloroplast contains a green pigment called chlorophyll, which absorbs light energy for
photosynthesis and convert them into chemical energy.
Plant chloroplasts are large organelles (5 to 10 m long) that, like mitochondria, are bounded by
a double membrane called the chloroplast envelope.
In addition to the inner and outer membranes of the envelope, chloroplasts have a third internal
membrane system, called the thylakoid membrane.

Chloroplast Envelope:
Each chloroplast is enclosed (surrounded by) a chloroplast envelope consisting of three layers:
The outer membrane is a phospholipid membrane
The inter membrane space
The inner membrane is a phospholipid membrane.
Stroma (chloroplast matrix):
The chloroplast matrix is called the stroma and contains
enzymes that catalyze the light- independent reactions of photosynthesis.
The stacks of sacs are connected by stromal lamellae.
Thylakoids:
Each thylakoid has a lumen.
They are disc-shaped structures that are the sites of light absorption at which the light-
dependent reactions of photosynthesis take place.

The region within the membrane forming each thylakoid (by enclosing the contents of the
thylakoid) is called the lumen of the thylakoid.
Grana:
Thylakoids are arranged in stacks called grana. A single granum is a stack of several thylakoids
one on top of another. There are many such grana within each chloroplast.
Lamellae:
Stromal lamellae connect two or more grana to each other. In this way the lamellae act as a
"skeleton" of the chloroplast, maintaining efficient distances between the grana, thereby
maximizing the overall efficiency of the chloroplast.
Photosynthesis
In photosynthesis, the sun's solar
energy is converted to chemical energy.
The chemical energy is stored in the form
of glucose (sugar).
Carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight are used to produce glucose, oxygen, and water.
Photosynthesis occurs in two stages.
These stages are known as the light reaction stage and the dark reaction stage.
The light reaction stage takes place in the presence of light and occurs within the
chloroplast grana.
The primary pigment used to convert light energy into chemical energy is chlorophyll a.
Other pigments involved in light absorption include chlorophyll b, xanthophyll, and
carotene.

In the light reaction stage, sunlight is converted to chemical energy in the form of ATP
(free energy containing molecule) and NADPH (high energy electron carrying molecule).
Both ATP and NADPH are used in the dark reaction stage to produce sugar. The dark
reaction stage is also known as the carbon fixation stage or the Calvin cycle.
Dark reactions occur in the stroma.
The stroma contains enzymes which facilitate a series of reactions that use ATP, NADPH,
and carbon dioxide to produce sugar.
The sugar can be stored in the form of
starch, used during respiration, or used in the
production of cellulose.





Functions of chloroplast
In plants all the cells participate in plant immune response as they lack specialized
immune cells. The chloroplasts with the nucleus and cell membrane and ER are the key
organelles of pathogen defence.
The most important function of chloroplast is to make food by the process of
photosynthesis. Food is prepared in the form of sugars. During the process of
photosynthesis sugar and oxygen are made using light energy, water, and carbon
dioxide.
Light reactions takes place on the membranes of the thylakoids.
Chloroplasts, like the mitochondria use the potential energy of the H+ ions or the
hydrogen ion gradient to generate energy in the form of ATP.
The dark reactions also known as the Calvin cycle takes place in the stroma of
chloroplast.
Production of NADPH
2
molecules and oxygen as a result of photolysis of water.
By the utilization of assimilatory powers the 6-carbon atom is broken into two
molecules of phosphoglyceric acid.
Chloroplast Genome
The chloroplasts of green plants are cytoplasmic organelles that house the various
pigments and enzymes of the light harvesting photosynthetic apparatus.
Chloroplasts contains a unique circular DNA genome that is completely different from
the nuclear genome.
The presence of organellar DNA and ribosomes was demonstrated only in 1962.
The chloroplasts and other plastids contain all the machinery necessary for gene
expression.
The chloroplast genetic components form a large proportion of those in the leaf
Chloroplast DNA is 10 to 20 times smaller than E.coli chromosomes.
Chloroplast genome of maize (corn) contains 140,000 bp of DNA.
Such genomes are much small to encode the ~1000 different proteins found in the
chloroplast.
Every known multimeric protein component of chloroplasts is a mixture of the products
of both nuclear and chloroplast genes.
Most of the chloroplast proteins are encoded by nuclear DNA, translated in the
cytoplasm and imported into the chloroplast by specific transport mechanism that
enables polypeptide to cross the outer membrane of the organelle.
comprising upto 15% of the total DNA and upto 60% of the total ribosomes.
Some 100 chloroplast specific proteins are synthesized within chloroplast itself and
these are encoded by the chloroplast DNA, transcripted by chloroplast specific RNA
polymerase and translated by chloroplast specific protein synthesizing machinery.
Since RNA cannot cross the outer membrane of the chloroplast, chloroplast rRNAs and
tRNAs must be encoded in chloroplast DNA.
Chloroplasts are not static organelles but can adopt to different physiological conditions,
such as high or low levels of light.
For example, when grown entirely in the dark, chloroplasts lack chlorophyll but retain
carotenoid pigments.
Thus many chloroplast genes are light regulated in certain cases by light-sensitive
promoters
Structure and Organization
The chloroplast genomes of vascular plants and most algae are quite similar in general
structure and organization, especially compared to whole sale variation seen in the
nuclear and mitochondrial genomes.
All known chloroplast genomes are circular DNA molecules.
Size variation is greatest among green algae in which most chloroplast genomes range
between about 85 and 300 kb.
The genome of Acetabularia chloroplasts is very large (~2000kb) and perhaps composed
of linear rather than circular DNA.
However in angiosperms chloroplast genomes in all but two of over 200 species are
circular and range in size between 120 and 160 kb.

The low end of this range is a single group of legumes which lack one copy of the large
(15-25 kb) repeated sequence characteristic of most other chloroplast genomes.
Thus the great majority of angiosperm chloroplast genomes actually fall into the
relatively narrow range of 135 and 160 kb.
Chloroplast DNA (ctDNA) consists of circular molecule of 83-128 x 106 molecular weight
with a size of 1.21 1.93 x 105 bp,
--about 85% single copy sequences and 15% repetitive sequences.
In geranium the repeated DNA is larger and genes such as psbB, petB, petD, petA and
rbcL are included in the inverted repeat
DNA is present in about 30-200 copies per chloroplast. A number of genes have been
located on the circle and one of the important features is the presence of two copies of
the ribosomal DNA sequences.
Other genes mapped include: the large subunit of RuBPCase, tRNAs, subunits of ATP
synthase and cytochrome f.
Most of its size variation - by the presence or absence of a portion of the plastid genome
which has been duplicated
It is present in an inverted orientation in the plastid DNA molecule
It separates a small single copy region from a large single copy DNA region
In higher plants the inverted repeat is 22 to 26 kbp, within which the rRNA transcript
unit is located.
Some plastid genomes such as those in pea and mung bean lack inverted repeat