Will Nikhwai and Yanna Argiriov

Chloroplasts

Chloroplasts are organelles found in plant cells, and other eukaryotic cells that conduct
photosynthesis. Their main function is to capture light for the process of photosynthesis, in
which the energy from light is used to synthesise food directly from carbon dioxide.
The chloroplasts belong to the class of organelles called Plastids, which are major organelles
found in plants and algae, that are associated with either the storage or manufacture of key
chemical compounds for the cell.
On the average, the chloroplast density on the surface of a leaf is about one-half million per
square millimetre, and the chloroplasts themselves are 2-10 µm in length and 1µm in
diameter. Up to 50 or more individual chloroplasts may be found in certain cells, whereas
some cells will have just one.

Structure:
The chloroplast contains a permeable outer membrane, a less permeable inner membrane
an intermembrane space, and an inner, aqueous section called the stroma. Within the
stroma are stacks of fluid-containing cavities (vesicles), where photosynthesis occurs. The
membrane envelope (outer and inner membranes) holds the cell together, while the inner
membrane acts like a control gate and regulator, controlling the flow of necessary material
and particles into and out of the chloroplast.
Although chloroplasts are relatively small compared to the rest of the cell, they can be seen
through a standard microscope. Inside the chloroplasts, in the stroma and the grana, is
where photosynthesis happens.
At the surface of the thylakoid is where
chlorophyll and other pigments are
located. Photons from sunlight hit the
pigments, electrons are "knocked"
loose, and off they go to energize the
complex process of photosynthesis.
Sometimes the thylakoid is also called
the photosynthetic membrane. The
membrane and the space inside it is
where the light or light-dependent
reaction takes place. The so-called
dark, or light independent reactions,
take place in the stroma.
A thylakoid has a flattened disk shape. Inside it is an empty area called the thylakoid space,
or lumen. In the electron microscope, thylakoid membranes appear as alternating light-and-
dark bands, each 0.01 μm thick.
Recent studies have shown that chloroplasts can be interconnected by tubular bridges called
stromules, formed as extensions of their outer membranes. Chloroplasts appear to be able
to exchange proteins via stromules, and thus function as a network.
Each chloroplast has some, but not all of its own genetic material needed to reproduce
itself. Their genetic material is stored in the stroma in ribosomes and other “genetic
material”. The rest of the chloroplast's DNA is in nucleus of the host cell- the mesophyll cell.
This allows the mesophyll cell to have some control in the making of its own chloroplasts;
with the protein products being transported to the chloroplast.
Chloroplasts sometimes make more carbohydrates than is needed for the photosynthesis
process. This "excess" carbohydrate material is stored in starch grains until it is needed
elsewhere.
A stack of thylakoids is called a granum. Two or more stacks are called grana. There can be
from 2 to around 100 thylakoids in one granum. The little tube-like strands connecting
thylakoids from granum to granum are called 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 generally considered to have originated as cyanobacteria (A group of

bacteria that contain chlorophyll and other light-harvesting pigments).The two lipid bilayer
membranes that surround the chloroplasts of green plants are thought to correspond to the
outer and inner membranes of the ancestral cyanobacterium.

Function:
The purpose of the chloroplast is to make sugars and starches; for which they use
photosynthesis. 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.

The chloroplasts, where photosynthesis occurs, are in the mesophyll cells in the leaf section.