In 1951, Yukako Chiba was the first to suggest that chloroplasts contain their own

DNA. He based his conclusion on the staining properties of a DNA-specific dye known as
Feulgen. Researchers later developed techniques to purify organellar DNA. In addition,
electron microscopy studies provided interesting insights into the organization and
composition of chloroplast (and mitochondrial) chromosomes. More recently, the advent of
molecular genetic techniques in the 1970s and 1980s has allowed researchers to determine
the sequences of organellar DNAs. From these types of studies, the chromosomes of
chloroplasts were found to resemble smaller versions of bacterial chromosomes.
The genetic material of chloroplasts is located inside the organelle in a region known
as the nucleoid (Figure 6.1). The genome is a single circular chromosome (composed of
doublestranded DNA), although a
nucleoid may contain multiple
copies of this chromosome. In
addition, a chloroplast often has
more than one nucleoid. Table 6.1
describes the genetic composition
of chloroplasts for a few selected species.

Figure 6.1. Nucleoids within a nucleoid nucleoid chloroplast.

Among algae and plants, substantial variation is also found in the sizes of chloroplast
chromosomes. A typical chloroplast genome is approximately 100,000 to 200,000 bp in
length. The chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) of the tobacco plant, which is a circular DNA
molecule that contains 156,000 bp of DNA and carries between 110 and 120 different genes.
By comparison, the nuclear genome of tobacco contains tens of thousands of genes.
The inheritance of traits via genetic material within chloroplasts is now a well-established
phenomenon that geneticists have investigated in many different species. In heterogamous
species, two morphologically different types of gametes are made—eggs and sperm. Egg cells
tend to be large and provide most of the cytoplasm to the zygotes, whereas

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the sperm are small and often provide little more than a nucleus. Therefore, chloroplasts are
most often inherited from the maternal parent. However, this is not always the case.

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