dictionary help| chloroplast | medical dictionary |
Photosynthetic organelle of higher plants. Lens shaped and rather variable in size but approximately 5m long. Surrounded by a double membrane and contains circular DNA though not enough to code for all proteins in the chloroplast). Like the mitochondrion, it is semi autonomous. It resembles a cyanobacterium from which, on the endosymbiont hypothesis, it might be derived. The photosynthetic pigment, chlorophyll, is associated with the membrane of vesicles (thylakoids) that are stacked to form grana.
This entry appears with permission from the Dictionary of Cell and Molecular Biology
(11 Mar 2008)
chlorophyll synthetase, chlorophyll unit, Chlorophyta, chloropicrin < Prev | Next > chloroplast DNA, chloroplasts, chloroprednisone
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