 First identified by - Nehemiah Grew and Antonie van

Leeuwenhoek.
 The term plastid was used by Schimper in 1885.
 Plastids are double-membrane organelle which are found in the
cells of plants, algae and some protestants - Euglinoids
 Plastids are responsible for manufacturing and storing of food.
These often contains pigments that are used in photosynthesis and
different types of pigments that can change the colour of the cell.
 Absent in the cells of Blue green algae, Bacteria, Fungi, Animal cells
& Male sperm cells of certain Higher plants.
 Precursors – Pro plastids.
 Polymorphic cell organelles

 Three types they are

1. Leuco plastids 2. Chromo plastids 3. Chloroplasts
Leuco Plasts:
 Amyloplasts – Starch – Potato, Rice
 Elaioplasts/Lipidoplasts – Fats/Oil – Endosperm of caster
 Aleuroplasts/Proteoplasts/Proteinoplasts – Proteins –
Pulses
Chromo Plasts:
 Non photosynthetic coloured plastids.
 They are Caroteinoids - Orange and Red - Ripened Fruit of
Tomato – Lycopene and - Ripened Fruit of Chillies -
Capsanthin
 Xanthophylls – Yellow –Ripened Fruit of Banana and
Mango
 Found aerial parts like petals, seed coat, pericarp of fruits &
some underground roots (Carrot)
Pl
 The term Chloroplast by – A.F. Schimper – 1885
 Second Large cell organelle of the cell
 Self – duplicating, semi – autonomous cell organelles
 5 – 10 µm diameter, 2 - 4 µm Width
 Green coloured for photosynthesis
 Higher plants each Mesophyll cell with 20-40N
 Single –Chlamydomonas, Spirogyra
 Present in Roots – Taenophyllum, Trapa, Tinospora
 Generally Disc Shape But in Algae
Cup - Chlamydomonas
Ribbon -Spirogyra
Star - Zygnema
Girdle - Ulothrix
Reticulate - Oedogonium
Envelope:
 Periplastidial space
 Outer membrane - Permeable
 Inner membrane - Selectively Permeable
Stroma/Matrix:
 DNA, RNA, 70S ribosomes, Enzymes, RUBISCO, etc…
Grana:
 Thylakoids – Granum & Stroma, Lumen (Reservoir of Photons
and site of Photolysis.
 Thylakoid membrane – chlorophylls, carotenes and
xanthophyll's
 Appressed regions: TM which are not attached to stroma – PS II
& cytochrome b6/f – complex.
 Non – Appressed regions: TM which have contact with stroma -
PS I, ATP synthase, less PS II & cytochrome b6/f – complex.
Rubisco:
 The chloroplast stroma contains many proteins, though
the most common and important is Rubisco.
 It is most abundant protein on the planet. 
 Rubisco is the enzyme that fixes CO2 into sugar
molecules.
 In C3 plants, rubisco is abundant in all chloroplasts,
though in C4 plants, it is confined to the bundle sheath
 chloroplasts, where the Calvin cycle is carried out in
C4 plants.
Pyrenoids:
 The chloroplasts of some hornworts and algae contain structures
called pyrenoids. They are not found in higher plants.
  Pyrenoids are roughly spherical and highly refractive bodies which
are a site of starch accumulation in plants that contain them.
  In algae with carbon concentrating mechanisms, the enzyme 
rubisco is found in the pyrenoids. Starch can also accumulate
around the pyrenoids when CO2 is scarce.
 Pyrenoids can divide to form new pyrenoids, or be produced 
Pigments and chloroplast colors:
 Chloroplast thylakoid membranes are various 
photosynthetic pigments, which absorb and transfer light energy.
Chlorophylls:
 Chlorophyll a is found in all chloroplasts, as well as their 
cyanobacterial ancestors. Chlorophyll a is a blue-green pigment.  
 The accessory pigments  are chlorophyll b, chlorophyll c, 
chlorophyll d, and chlorophyll f.
 Chlorophyll b is an olive green pigment found only in the
chloroplasts of plants, green algae.
 Chlorophyll c is mainly found in secondary endosymbiotic
chloroplasts that originated from a red alga, although it is not
found in chloroplasts of red algae themselves. Chlorophyll c is also
found in some green algae and cyanobacteria.
 Chlorophylls d and f are pigments found only in some
cyanobacteria.
Carotenoids:
 They help transfer and dissipate excess energy, and their bright colors
sometimes override the chlorophyll green, like during the fall, when the leaves
of some land plants change color.
 β-carotene is a bright red-orange carotenoid found in nearly all chloroplasts,  
Xanthophylls, especially the orange-red zeaxanthin, are also common.

Phycobilins:
 Found in cyanobacteria, and glaucophyte, red algal, and cryptophyte
 chloroplasts.
Phycobilins come in all colors, though phycoerytherin is one of the pigments that
makes many red algae red.
 Phycobilins often organize into relatively large protein complexes about 40
nanometers across called phycobilisomes.
 Like photosystem I and ATP synthase, phycobilisomes jut into the stroma,
preventing thylakoid stacking in red algal chloroplasts.[
 Cryptophytechloroplasts and some cyanobacteria don't have their phycobilin
pigments organized into phycobilisomes, and keep them in their thylakoid
space. 
Eyespot apparatus/ stigma:
 Photoreceptive organelle found in the flagellate or (motile) cells of green algae
(Chlamydomonas) and other unicellular photosynthetic organisms such as E
uglenids.
 One of the thylakoid is swollen and possesses photoreceptor pigments.
 It allows the cells to sense light direction and intensity and respond to it by
swimming either towards the light (positive phototaxis) or away from the light
(negative phototaxis).
Functions of chloroplast:
Photosynthesis:
 The light reactions take place on the thylakoid membranes. They take 
light energy and store it in NADPH, a form of NADP+, and ATP to fuel the dark
reactions.
 The Calvin cycle, also known as the dark reactions, is a series of biochemical
reactions that fixes CO2 into G3P sugar molecules and uses the energy and
electrons from the ATP and NADPH made in the light reactions. The Calvin
cycle takes place in the stroma of the chloroplast. So called Kitchen of the
cell/Sugar factories/Producers of the cell.
 Convert light energy to chemical energy
 Synthesis of ATP by photo phosphorylation during light reactions.
 Photorespiration
 Amino acid synthesis
 Differentiation, replication, and inheritance