The process of photosynthesis requires an ideal place to take place, this space is the chloroplast, a complex biological structure and efficient. The higher plants have a set of organelles specifically structured to carry out photosynthesis. These structures are called chloroplasts and are essential for the efficient development of this metabolic process.
Determination of photosynthetic function in chloroplasts
The first indication that act on the chloroplasts photosynthetic process, was released by Theodor Englemann, in 1882. This researcher discovered that some bacteria with ability to move, gathered on the surface of Spirogyra algae for oxygen, standing on a single structure, which was later called chloroplast.
It was noted that this accumulation of bacteria, was only present when there was light incident on the chloroplast from this reflection, it was concluded that chloroplasts were the place where the light stimulates oxygen production, photosynthesis.
Chloroplast morphology:
Chloroplasts are present in quantities ranging from one to thousands per cell, have very different sizes and shapes, such as ellipsoidal structure are about 5 micrometers (microns) in length, when in granular form have a diameter that varies in the range 1 to 10 microns, and sometimes exotic forms take as spiral ribbons.
Similar to mitochondria, chloroplasts have a highly permeable outer membrane and inner membrane impermeable, separated by a narrow intermembrane space also self-replicating and like mitochondria also contain DNA.
The inner membrane is a continuous structure, arranged in folds called lamellae, and surrounds a compartment containing the stroma, which is comparable to the mitochondrial matrix.
The stroma consists of a concentrated solution of enzymes, which also contains DNA, RNA and ribosomes involved in the synthesis of several chloroplast proteins.
The stroma, in turn, around a third compartment membrane, the thylakoid, this is a vesicle suborganulo unique, very folded, showing a group structure formed by stacked discoidal sacs called grana, which in turn are interconnected by stroma lamellae, not stacked. Typically, a chloroplast contains 10 to 100 grains.
The thylakoid membrane lipids have a characteristic composition and acyl chains of these with a high degree of unsaturation, are those which give high fluidity to the membrane. The composition of the membrane is 10% phospholipids, 80% are mono-and diacylglycerols digalactosyl without charge and the remaining 10% are sulfolipids.
In eukaryotes, the photosynthetic reaction takes place in chloroplasts, a subcellular organelle membrane. These cellular structures are formed with characteristic elements defined and highly specific functions, which are crucial to the metabolic efficiency of the plant cell.
