Original scientific paper

Plastid Differentiation in Calceolaria Petals

Mercedes Wrischer ; Hrvatska
Nikola Ljubešić ; Hrvatska

Abstract

Fine structural changes and changes in pigment content of differentiating chromoplasts have been studied in Calceolaria petals.
At all developmental stages the plastids contained two types of membranes: thylakoids and chromoplast internal membranes (CIMs). During the plastid transformation these two membrane types appeared in different proportions. Only the thylakoids were photosynthetically active, as shown by the photooxidation of diaminobenzidine.
During the plastid differentiation the quantity of thylakoids was constantly reduced and the number of CIMs increased. Fully grown flowers contained only CIMs and no thylakoids. A direct transformation of thylakoids into CIMs was not observed.
The pigment content changed considerably in differentiating chromoplasts. The chlorophyll content dropped constantly, while the content of total carotenoids increased. At last in fully grown flowers chlorophyll was hardly detectable. About 90% of all carotenoids was lutein.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

158908

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/158908

Publication date:

31.12.1984.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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