Chloroplast Research Paper

Words: 575
Pages: 3

Chloroplasts are paramount to life. They are the the site of oxidative photosynthesis, not only do they allow protista and plant cells to yield carbohydrates essential to crucial metabolic processes which are pivotal to their existence, but the bi-product (oxygen) which transformed our atmosphere 2.7 billion years ago, and now makes up 20.9% of it, drives respiration in eukaryotes and protects organisms from the damaging effects of UV via the ozone layer. Therefore the question of the origin of these organelles is fundamental in our understanding of their uses and structure.

Insight into the origin of the chloroplast has been extensively explored following Konstantin Mereschknwski’s articulation of one of the most fundamental notions in evolutionary cell biology; endosymbiosis.

The composition of the Earths primitive atmosphere of roughly four billion years ago, was dominated by the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. In these conditions anaerobic prokaryotes thrived. However, the composition of our biosphere was dramatically altered following the emergence of eubacteria capable of producing oxygen as a bi-product of photosynthesis (cyanobacteria). This occurred around 2.7 billion years ago and induced the first ‘Great
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Her argument in support of endosymbiosis revolves mainly upon the concept that chloroplasts have many mutualistic characteristics and hence are intimately related to the modern day ancestors of the primitive cyanobacterium (Hagen, J.B.,et al., 1996). The fact that chloroplasts and cyanobacteria have equivalent sized ribosomal proteins including the S1 which differ in size to eukaryotic ribosomes (Sugita, M., 1995), both undergo binary fission previous to cell division, and the composition of the chloroplast inner membrane is comparable to the cell wall of the cyanobacteria, are similarities that Margulis proposes prove